Barclays - Account Fraud?

[murbay]

2 weeks ago my step-father died and the following day I recieved a letter from Barclays telling me my account was overdrawn by £400. They also stated that as I have been a model customer and never been overdrawn they have refunded the £30 charge on my account.

 

I had only recently been paid and knew I couldn't be overdrawn as I am very careful with my money but on checking my bank account there was almost £1000 taken out from an ATM in Mexico in separate installments.

 

Worse still, even though Barclays had refunded the £30 they then took it out again the following day. I rang to report this and was told they would send out forms which I had to fill in and send back then went on to sell me an additions account. As a father with young children and bills to pay I took up their offer as they assured me that any further transactions would be compensated immediately. They ordered me a new card and new pin which have now arrived.

 

The problem is that the forms they were sending haven't. I have rung the bank 3 times and each time they have apologised and said there are some new forms in the post. The funny thing is that all my additions documentation arrived quickly but they seem to be dragging their feet with this claim.

 

I can prove for a fact that I wasn't in Mexico at the time, mainly because I don't even have a passport but also because even though I was on leave from work the week this all happened I still went in on a couple of days because of the nature of my work.

 

On asking why Barclays never flagged this as suspicious, they told me everything looked normal despite the fact I actually withdrew money from my account on one of the days money was being taken out in Mexico. Also Barclays allowed fraudulent transactions to carry on despite the fact my account was then overdrawn. I cannot understand how Barclays can think that cleaning out an account from another country in large sums of money, especially when I have withdrawn money in England at the same time is normal. They stated themselves I was a model customer so how could they not determine something was wrong.

 

I have now fallen behind with a few bills because I have just managed to get my account back under the overdraft and was assured by the bank that I was looking at 3 weeks to resolve this. I was unhappy with that but accepted it all the same. It is now coming up to the 3rd week and they still haven't sent me any forms. It's my stepfathers funeral this week and the last thing I needed was extra stress from my bank.

 

Does anybody have any advice as to how I should proceed. I really want to go to the police but feel that if I do that without giving the bank a chance to respond would just cause more confusion. Likewise, I cannot rely on waiting for my bank when I have a family to support. What is the stance on taking legal action against the bank on this if it shows they are deliberately holding back.

 

I'm not the sort of person to be chasing extra compensation or anything like that but I feel that I would be more than justified asking for the interest to be added onto my money as Barclays failed to protect it and in my eyes willingly allowed it to be stolen from me.

[slick132]

Hi Murbay and welcome to the Barclays forum,

 

I would report this to the police immediately. The bank's response so far suggests you should have little confidence in their handling of the situation. The police may not seem too interested but reporting it will show that you consider this to be a case of theft or fraud.

 

Read this thread and you'll see how the bank has been very slow and seemingly disinterested in another case - http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/barclays-bank/121894-fraud-fuming-anyone.html

 

Contact the bank and tell them you need to stop any further overseas transactions immediately - this may mean closing the a/c and re-opening a new one.

 

You must put your complaints, and instructions about stopping further o/seas pay'ts, IN WRITING.

 

Write to your branch but copy letters also to the Fraud Dep't - you'll find their address on post #30 of the thread linked above.

 

Keep us posted back on this thread.

[murbay]

Thank you for your response.

 

After today I will be on leave from work until Monday so will have ample time to prepare letters and report this to the police so I shall definately be taking this course of action.

 

I decided after Barclays response that I will be changing to a new bank but kept this account open until the situation has been resolved to avoid further problems from them.

 

I have already started a writing a letter to Barclays head office about the situation and have already stopped further overseas transactions when I initially reported the fraud over the phone. I will follow this up with a confirmation letter so that I have an active record of it.

 

As for closing the account, I did discuss this also but in return Barclays upgraded my account. I know this was most likely a sales tactic from the bank but at the time I was terrified of more withdrawals being made and not being able to do anything about it. I felt that since I had lost faith in Barclays £6.50 a month for a little less stress would be worth it till they refunded my account. After reading many stories on here, I'm not entirely sure it worked.

 

I asked my bank for the contact details for the fraud department but they told me 'it doesn't work like that' (sorry, natwest ad pun) I have to wait for the fraud department to contact me so the only thing I can do there is keep hold of the copies until the fraud department ask for them.

 

Anyway, i shall keep you posted as to how things go this week and hopefully find a way of cracking the hard exterior they call Barclays.

[slick132]

Hi Murbay,

 

Did you read the linked thread - it doesn't inspire confidence in Barclays urgency in such cases.

 

Are you saying that, after the money was taken from your a/c, Barclays persuaded you to pay them £6.50 a month to keep the same a/c open ?

 

Why should you pay them a monthly fee for keeping open an a/c, the details of which have already been used fraudulently.

 

I'd demand the £6.50 back and find out when their Fraud Bods will be in touch.

 

Keep us informed

[dannyg888]

right with the fraud barclays will have to investigate it first beacuse they cant just refund money instantly coz its a money loss to them and theyll try and get some or all the money back some how and DON'T write in its useless its better phoning but get a number from a local branch they should give you the number but DO NOT use the 0845 7 555 555 useless again

 

now with the account that is a first additions which has many benafits but when you upgraded it you would of signed something saying youre happy with it but if your unhappy with it you can cancel it with the money refunded(within 3 months for refund)

 

-Danny-

[slick132]

Troll - Ignore.

[murbay]

Sorry for the delay guys, had quite a bit on over the past couple of weeks with the funeral etc...

 

The current state I am at has left me disgusted with Barclays as a whole. I cannot fault my branch through any of this as the advisor and manager have tried to do everything they can to help and in some respects I have got a little further because of this but Barclays as a whole is unacceptable and I shall explain why.

 

Previously I mentioned that my forms had not arrived. Well, the did arrive a few days later (23rd April to be exact) the letter that arrived with the forms stated I had to fill in the forms and send them back to Barclays no later than 24th April otherwise I was accepting full responsibility for my account being debited. With all the will in the world, there was no way I could have possibly sent the forms back in time so I went down to my Branch.

 

I spoke to an Advisor first then she involved the manager who was extremely disappointed in how things have been handled. She rang the fraud department from the bank over the time it had taken to send out the forms but they wouldn't even fast track my forms.

 

Instead the bank issued new forms to be sent out (which only took 2 days to arrive) and told me to go back down when I got those. I went back in and they put together all the relevant information for me then offered to send it all off. I had read the link to the previous thread you posted and politely declined the banks offer as I wanted to make sure they were sent and that they were done by recorded delivery.

 

That was all done by last Monday and the letter stated it can take up to 3 weeks to refund my account. I have not had an acknowledgement to say they have recieved my forms or that things are being processed but I feel that I should give Barclays the 3 weeks they have stated to get their act together.

 

One thing noted on my statements was that I made 2 withdrawals from a local cash machine on the same day that money was debited from Mexico. In order for me to have done this I would firstly have had to withdraw the money from my local bank, fly over to Mexico in 4 hours, take the money out and fly back in 2 hours to withdraw £20 more so the bank cannot turn around and dispute this otherwise I feel I will have to take the legal option.

 

As for the Additions account, I know the cheek of them selling me an upgrade at a time like this was wrong and I knew completely what they were doing at the time so it isn't like I was tricked into doing it. I just felt at that time I needed to secure my account fast until this has all been resolved. After that I'm moving my money out and to a bank that treats it's customers like human beings. Unfortunately, pretty much most of the banks operate the same way so I need to look for a bank I feel comforable with so I'm thinking I might start booking appointments to sit down with the banks and basically interview them for a change Then make up my mind based on what guarantees the banks can offer and whether they can put them in writing.

 

I shall keep you updated as to any further developments as and wen they happen.

[slick132]

Hi, thanks for the update and let us know when you hear back.

 

 

**saying nowt about additions charges**

[murbay]

More news on the ongoing Barclays saga. Tonight my girlfriend found out her Barclays account has been stripped of just over £600 over the weekend leaving her with just over £4 to last until she gets paid in 3 weeks.

 

Because she was in the same position I was a few weeks ago and armed with the extra information, we took a different tact and after calling the bank to cancel the card we contacted the police to report it.

 

The response from the police was suprising, basicaly they weren't interested and it was the responsibility of the bank to sort it out. Not even a crime number because they said if the bank also reports it then she could be facing fraud investigation with 2 crime codes. This is despite the fact on the Barclays form it asks for any crime numbers.

 

The approach we are taking with this is NOT to report the fraud over the phone. They are aware it has happened but e have asked them not to deal with it as my partner will go down to the bank personally in the morning. We shall see then which approach yields the best response.

 

The money was taken from a cash machine in London just an hour after she used her card here in Yorkshire so again, even though unlike my problem it is still physically impossible to get from one machine to the other in the space of time given.

 

I'm begining to wonder now if it is a problem with the branch because we have accounts at the same branch and there was a woman in there last week when I went in reporting fraud on her account too. If it is then I think the legal approach is looking good right now or maybe it is just the incompetence of Barclays altogether. I'm wondering if the Head of Barclays had all this hassle when his account was stripped last year and whether he had to wait weeks to have his account corrected.

[slick132]

Hi Murbay,

 

Firstly, can you start a new thread for this 2nd case so it doesn't get confused with the 1st one.

 

Secondly, I think the police are wrong to deny you the chance to report this as the crime which you know it is.

 

Keep us updated on the new thread - copy and paste the post above to start the new thread.

[Shuff]

I must say Barclays were good when this happend to me. I had my card skimmed and nearly £800 taken out in three seperate times in 24 hours in Hungry. I rang barclays and they sent me the fraud forms I filled them out an returned them. They refunded all money and charges on my account after investigating. They actually did something right for once.

[slick132]

Hi Shuff and thanks for the input.

 

I think it's maybe easier for Barclays to accept obvious fraud abroad, especially in less-visited countries.

 

How long did it take from the reporting or discovery of fraud to full refund.

[tbern123]

It may not be the Branch that resulted in the fraud on both accounts. It could well be a local petrol station or something of the like and your card details were skimmed.

 

The Mexico transactions may show as cash withdrawals but this may not be via an ATM. They could be cash over the counter withdrawals. This happened to me last year (Nationwide not Barclays) my account was emptied via a number of cash withdrawals in Sri Lanka, I spotted them coming out as ear marked funds so before the cash was physically taken from my account I visited a branch in person and informed them of what was happening.. Didn't really do me much lukc though.

 

I managed to get them to refund my money within 3 days. The way I did it was to find out our nationwide do there email address i.e [email protected] (barclays do them the same way. I then went on their website, made a note of all the names of the directors and googled Nationwide email and got a few other senior email addresses and I emailed them all my complaint. I outlined that it was impossible for me to be out of the country and indicated that if they did not refund me I would go to the press.

 

It is important to note that Barclays will ignore any press threats unless you quote a specific reporter and the paper they work with.

 

By emailing the Directors, it will force Barclays Exec Team to deal with your complaint and if you name a reporter and paper they will also get pressure from their press relations department.

 

Give it ago, you have nothing to lose.

[murbay]

Apologies slick. I won't need to start a new thread after talking to the missus, she has her own login for here and I think if things dont go well she will start her own post anyway so I shall let her discuss her own issues when she is ready rather than me creating a new thread then she adds another one.

 

tbern, thanks for the input. Firstly though they were definately ATM withdrawals in Mexico, this was something I confirmed with the bank at the time and also on my statements they are marked as ATM and not withdrawals. When my mother got done last year they discovered her card was cloned from a local petrol station which is why I'm always careful. If I fill up then I'll withdraw the money first and I always use the same petrol station. I know what to look out for on the machines so I don't think it was a petrol station where my card was done.

 

I did have a pretty good idea after an incident in Phones 4 U that it may have had something to do with it. Basically I bought a new phone for one of the kids and I had to put £10 top up on it. Everything went smoothly and I had my card in my possession the whole time. It was only after we got home that my son realised there was no credit on the phone. I rang orange who told me no money had been put onto that card yet I had a receipt to say the transacion was successful. I wondered then if thats how they had got my details but it is impossible as the first withdrawal from Mexico came out the day before.

 

That only leaves me with one possibility. I am a huge Barnsley fan and as a result, made the trip down to Wembley for the FA Cup Semi Final. On the way down I withdrew some money from a cash machine at Watford Gap Services. There was nothing strange about the machine and it was one of those stand alone boxes where you pay £1.50 for the privilege of getting your own money. It was only after leaving that the missus pointed out that they did have normal cash machines in the wall that probably wouldn't have charged. Now whether that was set up to take peoples details (because it dials out) I don't know but that was the only thing different I did and that was a week before the money started being taken out from Mexico. There is no other way anyone could have got hold of my pin because I never changed it from the one issued by the bank, I never wrote it down and the paper it came on, I have a habit of burning out the plastic bit then ripping up the letter so it would be impossible for someone to have got hold of it.

 

As for the press, the organisation I work for has it's own PR department which I'm quite close to a few people working in there. In the past I have had to burn various things onto CD and DVD to be handed over to the local (and sometimes national news). It would be extremely easy for me to ask for specific contacts for various newspapers or even the newsrooms themselves though as I have said before, Barclays have a week before their deadline so I shall at least honour that first before deciding on the next course of action but it has been duly noted ;0)

 

I did think about e-mailing the chairman after he of all people knows what it's like to be ripped off but I think I shall follow that route first after Barclays deadline is up.

[Mrs_Ryan]

Ive just come across this thread and I have to say I really feel for you. The same happened to me with my Alliance and Leicester and NatWest debit cards... they got cloned when I used them to buy 2 tickets in a London Underground ticket machine and the first thing I knew was when both banks rang me to tell me there had been attempted withdrawals in Morocco with my cards. The ironic thing is that LU wont let you use the same card at the same station twice in a day due to the risk of fraud - huh!

 

i was very lucky in the sense that my banks picked up on the suspicious transactions and refused both of them, and i didnt lose a penny. I rang the local police after the second call from A&L, (actually it was A&L's local force as well, Leicestershire Constabulary, just up the road from A&L's nerve centre) and they were fantastic, duly noted all the details and provided me with a crime number no questions asked, (for both cards) but they said that they didnt really deal with it, that the banks would report it if they needed to, but they were lovely and said I had done the right thing in ringing them. They should at least have provided a crime number... i would question that.

 

Good luck, I hope this is sorted 4u soon as I know all too well how stressful it is.

 

Mrs R xx

[murbay]

I have had a development today from Barclays though the events of yeserday could have been completely different.

 

After having heard nothing from the bank to even acknowledge the claim, I decided to give them a call just for an update. Sometimes with Barclays it is very difficult to get someone on the phone with a reasonable knowledge of english and Tuesday was no exception. I tried explaining to the woman what I was calling about but first she thought I was informing them of fraud and that she would send some forms out to me. I explained I had already recieved them and just wanted an update. This led her to believe I hadn't recieved any forms and question why I hadn't rung the bank to ask for some more.

 

I politely asked to speak to someone with a better understanding of the enlish language and she eventually put me through. Again I hit brick walls, was put on hold numerous times and then they tried to sell me car insurance. Finally they came back to tell me no forms had been recieved. I explained that this could not be the case since they were sent recorded delivery and someone had signed for them at their end, this led to another 5 minutes on hold before being transferred to someone else who informed me that they may have recieved my forms but there was nothing showing on the system and this could be down to a huge backlog in fraudulent reports.

 

After explaining that the 3 weeks were up on Friday they then tried to get me to upgrade my account again as this may speed up the process. At this point I was ready for boiling over but thought that might cause more issues so stayed calm. Instead I just asked them if my job title and place of work had been updated on their system. After she read it back to me the mood changed on the phone and I was finally put through to someone else who assured me that my case was being investigated and was very close to completion.

 

I felt at the time this was just a ploy to get me off the line but today I had confirmation from Barclays that it has now been fully investigated, they are satisfied that it was fraud and will be refunding not only the money that was taken, but also the charge for being overdrawn plus interest and as a way of apology for the mistakes they made at the begining they are giving me an extra £30. Might not sound like much but it's £30 more than I was expecting and I'm not a greedy person so I was an unexpected suprise.

 

That said I am still in the hunt for a new bank and at the moment the Halifax sounds good in terms of how quick they deal with fraud but the jury is still out.

 

Just a word of note, Barclays haven't refunded the money yet so that may take weeks or it could be sorted by the weekend. Either way, as much as I hate to say it, sometimes you do have to throw a little weight around in order to get what you are entitled to especially as far as banks are concerned. It looks like Barclays came through for me but only after I pointed out what a fuss I could kick up if they didn't. I would have liked to have hoped that Barclays could have done this because they were professional and cared about their customers. Maybe some are treated different to others or maybe I was just in the 1% of disatisfied customers and 99% of the time they get it right. Either way, banks need a serious review on how they handle fraudulent claims and in this day and age it shouldn't be taking 5 or 6 weeks and a little push for them to get their act together.

 

I'm happy there is a light at the end of the tunnel for me but I'm equally unhappy that there are people out there who may struggle to get their refunds back from Barclays and be put under the same pressure I felt having to provide for my family and no money to do it with. My advice to you is to stick at it and don't give in

[slick132]

Hi Murbay,

 

Thanks for the update. Let us know when you get the refund.

 

Sounds like you've got this sorted now, so well done.