internet fraud...inform police

[bulldogoscar]

Firstly i apologise if this post isin wrong section but couldnt find where to place it.

 

Just before christmas i checked my online statement on abbey web site and to my horror i noticed that several hundreds of pounds had benn paid to website casinos,web hosting companies and mobile companies without my authorisation or knowledge.

 

I immediately informed the abbey and they ceased all activities on my account and set up a fraud investigation.When i asked them if i should inform the police they said no.

However since then i have found out that a friend of my wifes has also been hit by the fraudsters at the same time by the same companies ,so i was wondering if the abbey have been hit quite hard by these frauds.

 

My question is should i inform the police about this fraud and what can they do?

[woodwa5]

internet fraud is a crime like any other and if the abbey think they can just investigate this themselves then they could well be missing a much bigger picture that only the police will see. The Police also have much greater powers to sieze equipment and search premises and also ultimately to arrest and prosecute offenders. You may find that the abbey are doing an initial investigation before passing it on to the police. I am not a big fan of this however i think you need to establish if that is the case. If not then I would report it to the police if only so they have the information for intelligence reasons

[sam614]

or you may get the answer that my sister in law has just had.check out the post natwest account fraud...they did not and will not involve the police as natwest didnot lose the money,,she has taken this to the police yesterday who were less than impressed as they have duty to investigate..starting 2 weeks after the crime was comitted

[NailPost]

The Abbey fraud department is open during office hours mon-fri 9-5pm but you can contact an advisor about taking out loans, overdrafts, credit cards etc 24/7 - that's how seriously Abbey takes fraud!

[woodwa5]

enough said really, report it to the police

[noomill060]

Its YOUR money, so YOU decide when to get the cops involved.

[NailPost]

Actually in my case most of the amount taken is Abbey's! Someone took about £2K out of the account in a fraudulent transaction a few days before payday so I was getting close to my overdraft zone. What absolutekly amazed me was that the thief - there can be no other word for it - helped himself to about £120 of my cash and the rest took my account not only overdrawn but over the overdraft limit itself. the trabsaction should not have been approve. But it was. When I asked the telephone monkey why that had happened he had no answer. Neither had the fraud bloke - not my department he said. Should I report it to the cops I asked? No they said quite firmly, we'll deal with it. I still reported it and advised Abbey of this. They were not best pleased. The matter has still not being properly resolved.

[woodwa5]

I am a cop and you did the right thing

[flyingdoc]

dont kid yourself nail that this wasnt your money - ABBY would happily come after you to pay this back if they thought they could get away with it.

[NailPost]

I had round two with the very efficient (not) fraud department today. I made four calls before one of the "fraud advisors" decided he could deal with my problem. The matter will be resolved within 10 working days but in the meantime I wil, be without a bankcard, will probably get clobbered for charges and interest and can apply, no guarantees, for an emergency overdraft - for which I will have to pay interest.

 

This was all said in a tone of voice and manner that made me think he thought the bank were actually doing me a favour. It was then I let slip the fact the matter had been reported to the police. He didn't like that and almost inferred it could affect the speed of the refund. He backtracked when I questioned him on that.

 

Then, when I asked about the charges and interest, he backtracked further and said they would be added to the account but would then be deducted - probably applied to the company who made the transaction.

 

It then got very interesting. I asked why the transaction had been approved when it not only took me overdrawn but beyond the overdraft limit. No proper answer. I was then asked a proper question about the last time I used the card. It was a few hours before the card was used fraudulently when I withdrew cash from a supermarket atm. I then asked where was the card used next. The reply was rather amazing in that it was somewhere in the Far East. Could I have been there at the time I was asked. WTF!!!!!

 

I asked him to consider the facts and that it was not my security that needs tightning up but theirs. An investigation is to be launched into how the card details came to be misused but I may not get to know the result. I think I will - would the Data protection Act apply in this case?

[woodwa5]

They do make me chuckle. I have had many problems with the abbey in this respect, including when they told me it would take at least a month to investigate a cashpoint saying that it had issued me with £300 when it hadn't (meaning i was £300 out of pocket for a month). I wrote all the details in an email and sent it to the abbey chief exec' and not only was it resolved in days but i was given £75 extra for my troubles. If you want to do the same his email address is:

 

[email protected]

 

Be humble in the email and expect him to pass it onto one of his minions but it will be addressed,

Woodwa5;)

[piglet33]

It has now happened to me today, thank goodness i checked my account. Abbey have been absolutely useless. This time it was chip and pin fraud, card cloning. Informed Police after Abbey couldnt care less and basically accused me of doing it. They have accused the wrong person as I wont let this lie.