Barclays bank fraud investigation is driving me mad

[EachandEveryone]

I know, I know its for my own good. I never reported anything but they told me there has been some fraud activity for future purchases. I didnt know this was a thing and Im pleased they found it.

however, this was three days ago and my account has been frozen since. The fella rings me constantly if he doesnt get me on the landline it will be the mobile. Despite me repeatedly telling him Ive just had eye surgery and on the same day told I have start chemotherapy again therfore can you now stop ringing me. He doesnt listen nor care that Im waiting for calls from the chemo suite or waiting to go in to the actual appointment. I have stuff to do.

when i look at my account theres large amounts of money taken by the bank even from my ISA.

he told me its taking so long as i keep checking my account so they have to start again.

je sends me countless texts asking me to authorise this and that payment like endless amounts. Its been three days now.

sorry, I needed to get it off my chest.

OP they’re professional scammers who have honed their skills by trying it out on many people before someone unsuspecting bites because they are thinking about something else. I hope the bank can recover the money for you so you can concentrate on your treatments. FWIW I have heard of a friend who got the money back from a similar scam but not sure which bank. He was going through a painful separation so his mind was busy on that rather than on the look out for scammers. They really are shits.

Well done OP.

The scammers and the romance fraudsters are heartless and incredibly well organised, many people are tricked. It’s a billion dollar business and they are great at what they do.

Do not be embarrassed, you did the right thing and asked for advice here then acted on it. Share your near miss with others and you’ll likely find you are far from alone.

Also, make sure your bank are trying to recover every payment. They can put an indemnity claim through for each payment sent to see if there’s any money left. And as you mentioned being ill at the moment, it’s worth pursuing a complaint with them to see if they can refund your through the CRM code. If you need any help or advice, feel free to message me.

Why do people confidently say stuff like this? It is not only investment banking at all. Not the main retail operations teams but a large portion of the retail bank(risk/product/tech/compliance) is at 1CP.

Very glad you got in touch with them and it's being blocked OP.

Go into your nearest branch of Barclays now ! they will sort it out for you.

I don't know who ' he ' is that you are referring to - neither do you !!!

OK sorry my bad. I just googled and that's what came up.
Not sure why it was such a problem though. Ultimately it was a scam

Because on a thread where the OP is being affected by misinformation adding more misinformation is really unhelpful and makes it confusing to understand the right course of action.

Op you need to ignore his calls. Go in to your branch or call Barclays from a different numbers do not use the number this man has given you.

He is taking money from you. He is the scammer

Make sure that they know you were between an operation and chemotherapy and that you therefore consider yourself vulnerable. They have a greater obligation to vulnerable customers, and I think it's clear that in this situation your health has affected how you have dealt with this so that would apply. There was a guardian article about it recently that I'll try and find.

I disagree. I was pointing out that information given by scammers was not correct. I don't think it affected the point.

As I said I am very sorry and I promise not to google answer things again

sends me countless texts asking me to authorise this and that payment like endless amounts.
Fraud department wouldn't ask you to authorise anything, ever!! You are being scammed right now. Please visit a bank branch and tell them. If you must use a phone please use a different one to the phone they are calling you on.

EDIT - read the update. Well done OP for listening. I hope they can recover most of it

Im
on my way into
yhe branch now. They couldn’t give me anymore info on the phone as my password is wrong. At least everything is now cancelled, I hope they will see me in private

That’s what they do OP - they try different people until someone has an off day and doesn’t think straight and believes it. It can happen to the best of us

And that's why the scammer kept calling you - to activate your panic response and stop you thinking rationally and calmly.

@EachandEveryone Request about being seen privately, there is a huge push about protecting customers who have been affected by scammers and this should be easily accommodated.

With your chemo etc make them aware you are a vulnerable customer. Appreciate the term might not sound nice and you may not think is applicable but it is the term used in FCA consumer duty and will make sure you get all the support and time to help resolve this horrible situation.

You're doing the right thing now and be kind to yourself.

I hope you can get things sorted, it's definitely a scam with a spoofed phone number to make it look official. No bank would remove money or insist that only they can call you.

Take some ID with you if you can grab it easily. I've no idea how the meeting is going to go, but if passwords etc have been changed, you might need to prove who you are some other way.

Oh OP, really hope you get all your money back. I am so glad you posted as it highlights this type of scam to other people. Don't be embarrassed, it can really happen to anyone. I was scammed out of £1400 (that I could ill-afford to lose) on a CEO impersonation scam, unfortunately I couldn't recover the money. A very expensive lesson learned.

Big unmumsnetty hugs 💐

Hello, I have had a chap called Aaron call me from a barclays number about a year ago. They actually hack into the numbers.

I picked it.up and he said he's Aaron from the fraud investigation department and that someone has just spent 900 quid on my card in John Lewis and they're about to do another card.payment in a teeth whitening company.

The number literally came up as barclays so I really believed it until he said that we need the last 3 digits on the back of your card to freeze your card and cancel the payments. Whilst he was saying all this , I went into my app and saw nothing had been taken.

I said are you really from barclays and he said yes, you can see I'm calling from the official barclays number, Google it.

I then put the phone on speaker and as soon as my husband said hello he hung up.
I rang barclays and they said it definitely wasn't them.

I wonder how they manage to get barclays number though.

Op, it really does sound dodgy and a scam. Report it and close down your account, set up a new one.

Hi I work in this area & the fraud investigation team should absolutely take into account the current situation with your health & the treatment you're receiving as this may have impacted your decision making. Also the fact that you thought you were receiving a call from your own bank who you would trust. Wishing you all the very best x

Omg while I’m waiting at Barclays he’s rang me again asking if I’ve spoken to anyone at the bank and that he has cancelled my card. I lied said I was back at doctors, I’m kind of hoping he will ring back whilst I’m in the side room. They were very nice and said I won’t beleive what goes on I just have to wait my turn.

At least they pissed you off enough to make you post here!

I hope you get your money back.

don't feel embarrassed OP, can happen to anyone. scammere are getting more and more tricky to spot. hopefully you will get most of your money back.

OP did they get you to download any apps? If so uninstall them now - you probably know how to do that but if you don't get someone else to do it for you and until you do turn your phone off so they can't access it.

I'm sorry this is a dreadful thing for you to be going through. I'm enraged for you as they know from what you've said that you're really vunrable right now so they're deliberately targeting you. I really hope they can recover the money for you and that the chemo proves successful

I hope you get it sorted.

I can understand people falling for things like this as I had a similar call and the caller sounded very well spoken and started off by actually telling me my name and address and asking me to confirm them; them already knowing my details making it slightly more convincing (although that wouldn’t happen with a genuine company).

It was regarding a card I rarely use though, and I’m not actually the account holder so alarm bells rang early on. They tried to make me panic that fraud was being attempted, and said the only way to stop it was to tell them a code that they’d text to my phone 🙄 (which was them trying to authorise transactions using the card details they’d taken). They got very frustrated when I refused to play, and the cover slipped.

As I’d only used the card once in the couple of months leading up to this is was easy to work out where they’d got my details from (a genuine site which must have been hacked).

Shit OP I work for Barclays and you are 100% being scammed