Halifax Online Fraud

[hughaduncan]

Hi

 

Does anybody have any advice on the subject of bank online fraud.

 

Last month I discovered that my online details had been accessed and my account had been cleaned out. The bank service and performance when deaing with this situation was, needless to say, terrible. I had to take a few days off of work to open new bank accounts and try and sort out the mess that the bank had created in freezing my account. I understand that this was the best thing to do but their customer service dept. did as little as possible to help me. I then received a letter after about a month telling me that they had no idea where the money had gone and that it was probably my fault!!!

 

T

[BankFodder]

We don't have expereince about this. However, I would begin an immediate official complaint about it with a view to going to the Ombudsman.

Also you want to know if they have informed the police and if not then why not and if yes then what if the reference number. You also want the name of their insurers.

 

Have they given you any clue how this might have happened? This problem will only be resolved if you obtain as much information as possible about what has happened.

 

I suggest that you put in a DPA request requiring dislcosure of all information relating to your account including all screen notes and any other material. It is going to be a slog.

[hughaduncan]

Thanks for the speedy reply bankfodder.

 

I have already requested information and informed them that I intend to seek compensation for loss of earnings, telephone time and time taken to write e-mails, letters, etc.

 

I have as yet received no official reply to my original comlaint letter and have not received contact details of the ombudsman from the bank, eben thought they promised to send them asap.

[BankFodder]

How long ago did you send your letter?

[hughaduncan]

about 3 weeks ago

[BankFodder]

Threaten them. Send the DPA request now with the £10. Send a threat that you will take continued silence a a refusal and that you will apporach the Ombudman directly. Set 7 day deadlines. never waiver. And you want to know what the poice crime report number is? (There won't be one but we can make that another issue.)

 

Send all correspondence special delivery and make it clear to them that you are suing special delivery because of their continued refusal (not failure) to respond and that you will be expecting reimbursement of these expenses as well.

[hughaduncan]

Excellent!

 

Thanks for the advice. They have annoyed me so much because of their lethargy that I have also decided to have a go at them about bank charges as well!

 

Thanks for all your help!

[hughaduncan]

Hi

 

Well my complaint letter, which was sent a week ago by recorded delivery and by e-mail giving them 7 days to respond to me regarding the Halifax's handling of my on-line fraud, has been completely ignored!

 

I sent the manager who was 'monitoring' my case an e-mail reminder yesterday. I received the normal message telling me they will contact me soon...

 

I threatened to report them to the ombudsman if hey didn't take the complaint seriously. Is this going to be of any use?

 

Any advice...?

[Spiceskull]

Stop threatening them - act instead. This is four weeks ago. They have had more than sufficient time to not only reply to you but to also come back to you with preliminary findings from their investigations.

 

Follow the advice given by BF - set 7 day deadlines and stick to them. Their own internal procedures and timetables are of no consequence or interest to you.

 

Report them to the ombudsman today...

[natalie]

Just wanted to quote from Halifax website

 

"Nobody has ever lost any money from banking online with us. Thanks to our online fraud guarantee, you can be sure that you won't either, even if you do fall victim to fraud.

 

Online fraud guarantee

At Halifax we do everything we can to protect you online - but in the unlikely event of fraud, we promise you won't lose out.

 

All Halifax online banking customers automatically benefit from our online fraud guarantee:

 

If a customer of our online service is a victim of online fraud, we guarantee that they won't lose any money from their account, and will always be reimbursed in full."

 

It might be worth quoting this to them nexttimeyou speak to someone.

[Spiceskull]

I would go futher than that - If they won't reimburse you, then report them for making a false claim on the website. You can also tell them what the website says, and see what they say then...

[hughaduncan]

The only move that the bank have made towards reimbursement is to overdraft me the money (£100.00 short of the actual amount) They then had the cheek to send me a letter advising me of the rates of interest on the overdraft!!! When I phoned to complain about this they told me that they would waive the interest! How nice of them!)

 

The main part of my complaint was the way in which they handled the situation. I was told that they would automatically transfer any direct debits/standing orders over to my new account. This still hasn't been done and I had to call every one of these companies to change the details myself. I spent at least 2hrs in total on hold on the phone waiting for someone who could even try and help me!

 

I also lost out on work (Im self employed) because they had frozen my account and I didn't have any access to my funds to get there! (The job was 100 miles away)

 

The really annoyiing thing is that they haven;t even responded to my complaint letter.

 

I have drafted a letter to the ombudsman and filled in the pdf form you can download. I don't know if they will be of any use but it can't be any worse!

[hughaduncan]

Ive sent of my completed form to the financial ombudsman along with a diary of whats been going on and a copy of my original complaint letter.

 

Ive since discovered that the Halifax/BoS have attached a note to my credit rating (a positive note, they say) which means that everytime I have to go through a credit check, they will come up against this note.

 

Ive already had notification (from the Halifax/BoS themselves would you believe!!!) that they require more proof of identity before my change in mortgage from Northern Rock to the Halifax/BoS, which was underway before this whole situation started, can continue!

 

My question is what can I really expect from the financial ombudsman and is there anything else I can do to get some satisfaction from the Haliax/BoS.

 

I have had absolutely no comfirmation of them even receiving my complaint, never mind doing anything about it...!

 

Any help or ideas would be most welcome.

[hughaduncan]

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