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Original poster

To be a bit unnerved after being a victim of fraud

31 replies

Dullfromdullsville · 27/11/2015 12:22

Mine and dh's joint account has been attacked. Someone has tried to set up a huge overdraft and also tried to spend ££££ online as well. The bank have locked us out of the account until dh goes in to bank to be identified. Luckily it looks like anything suspicious has been blocked before money has been withdrawn but I'm still a bit concerned. The fraud team have been very cagey and won't tell me whats happened or how. I feel a bit alarmed by this as I've been happily buying Xmas presents online over the last few weeks and so has dh. Does anyone have any idea how these things happen as its a bit of a mystery to me! Bank also recommend we close this account asap which is a real pain.

OP posts:
MagicMojito · 27/11/2015 12:56

I had similar happen last year. Its a horrible feeling isn't it?! I had no idea it was even happening until NatWest fraud team alerted me to it as I never really check my statementsBlush

I've no idea how it happened but I do try to use PayPal when buying online whenever possible now.

TwoSmellyDogs · 27/11/2015 12:58

Happened to me too - and I had credit cards coming through the post that I hadn't applied for. Actually still not sure what kind of half arsed would be scammer would send the cards to the actual victim Grin but anyway. I remain convinced it was someone I know who'd recently shown themselves to be a complete nutjob. They didn't get anything anyway but it's still a slightly WTF feeling!

OurBlanche · 27/11/2015 13:02

We were 'got' a few years ago. We know where it was done and by whom but, although the bank confirmed fraud, stopped cards, sorted out accounts etc, we didn't find out what happened.

The only thing that did happen was a policeman asked us for details, refused to confirm/deny it was part of an ongoing anything, thanked us and that was that!

When my card was 'tried out' in Carphone Warehouse, the bank phoned me, I refused to talk to them and phoned them back on another phone. They asked me to check if I had my card - which I did I had used it to find out what number to ring and was sat at home, 20 miles from the nearest CW shop - they thanked me and that was that.

I don't think you do anything. Just follow the bank's advice, if you need a cash advance ask them, they are pretty good at sorting stuff like that.

Good luck, I hope the process is painless for you.

sparechange · 27/11/2015 13:04

Do you put your bank statements in the bin? Have you noticed any bank statements go missing in the post?
Have you left your card behind a bar to start a tab?

If you have to move the account, they should do all the leg work of moving direct debits etc, so it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

VinylScratch · 27/11/2015 13:05

My bank card was cloned last year, it's a horrible feeling, I actually cried inthe bank when I went in to sort it out Blush. Luckily the none too bright fraudsters had tried to use it in Korea so it flagged as suspicious right away. It's made me paranoid about using cashpoints though, I try to use plastic to pay and get cash back in shops now.

Unreasonablebetty · 27/11/2015 13:06

My father inlaw had quite similar happen as what Twosmellydogs described-
Twosmellydogs, you don't have an external post box attached to your house do you?
Someone applied for CC card in FILs name, and then had the audacity to ask the Postie where xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx was.

Jumped in his car, made his way to my inlaws house, and broke into their external postbox. Luckily it was empty and the card that they seem to have ordered was delivered a day before.

The postie went to tell the inlaws what had gone on and since then they don't use the external postbox. The card issuers weren't very helpful to FIL, but they've no idea how someone got all their details, they shred their letters and FIL uses a different name to his birth given name. It shook them both up that someone had all that information about him.

Sadly it's very common to have these kind of issues now.
Sorry to hear you've been though this though.... Especially so close to Christmas.

Original poster
Dullfromdullsville · 27/11/2015 14:35

Thanks everyone for their stories. It's worrying how often this happens!
2 weeks ago my phone broke and I gave my phone company remote access to my laptop! I am a complete Muppet and don't understand the complexities of how they get info but do you think this could be the way the hackers got in?
The bank said that online banking is pretty secure, and that it was dh's card which had been used. I'm just sure I am the one who has fucked up somewhere?

OP posts:
ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 27/11/2015 14:39

How does accessing your laptop help with broken phone?

howtorebuild · 27/11/2015 14:43

They get your details from the dark web, where they are sold by hackers.

nancy75 · 27/11/2015 14:45

It can be lots of different ways, people have machines that clone cards (petrol stations are often the culprit) People steal stuff from bins, computer viruses, there are lots of big companies that get hacked.

You can't ever totally stop it happening - the thing to do is to always check your statements and make sure that you shred stuff or always pay cash for everything.

howtorebuild · 27/11/2015 14:47

Do prepayment cards help for online purchases?

Original poster
Dullfromdullsville · 27/11/2015 14:49

Sorry I didn't explain that very well did I? The phone company backed up my phone using iTunes on my pc in order to restore phone to factory settings. I could see the curser moving on the screen as they did this but after a while curser was still and it took about 2 hours to complete. I was a bit suspicious to be honest, I won't make that mistake again!

What the hell is the dark web ? How do they do that then?

OP posts:
howtorebuild · 27/11/2015 14:56

I read about it on mn, you get in via Tor. It's where contract murders, ISIS and paedophiles handgun out with hackers.

shebird · 27/11/2015 15:04

Several people I know including DH have traced fraud back to their PayPal account- this payment method is not as secure as it seems and can be hacked to obtain bank or credit card information.

Never store card details online - when you've made a purchase and they ask if you want to store your details for next time always say no.

saraht84 · 27/11/2015 15:15

I had my card cloned at a petrol station cashpoint. It didn't look suspicious but over one weekend about 20 people were hit! Some kind person used my account to buy as much cycling gear as they could very quickly and drained all my money. I got it back eventually but it's all such a hassle.

NetballHoop · 27/11/2015 15:25

I was told by the police that they get names and addresses from the public register of voters. It's then quite easy (or at least it was when we were done over) to take out payday loans.

imgoingdowntown · 27/11/2015 16:10

I work for a bank and I never keep anymore than few hundred pounds in my current account at any one time (put most of it in my savings), check my accounts daily online/ on my app and have a rough idea of how much should be in each account. This comes from seeing people have so much money fleeced from their accounts in a variety of different ways. It's not foolproof but you get a chance to spot anything untoward quickly. Always open mail too...surprising how many people don't open their mail and could've spotted things earlier. Hope it all gets sorted OP Flowers

Tirfarthoin · 27/11/2015 16:24

My card was cloned at a petrol station.

Original poster
Dullfromdullsville · 27/11/2015 18:33

I think from now on, online purchases should be made from my other current account as there's never much in there, not the one where our wages are paid into. Obvious really I guess!
It's a bit worrying that people mention PayPal as I always thought that was really secure!
And petrol stations too! Eeek!

OP posts:
VinylScratch · 27/11/2015 18:57

Mine was cloned at a supermarket atm, the bank fraud team told me it happens often and to try to use atms attached to actual banks if possible because the staff are more vigilant about checking the machines for cloning devices.

hefzi · 27/11/2015 21:13

My Paypal had issues last week - I was trying to pay a MN for something, and called them: people had been attempting to log in from Singapore, China and Brazil. It's still not sorted :-/

I'm with Natwest and I've had my card cloned once and my account hacked twice - apparently, a big thing is using free wifi/wifi in public places and accessing your account/moving money through the app. I have no idea how it works - but was pretty pissed off to land in Amsterdam a few years ago, and discover that my account had been emptied. Luckily, I was with my XDP - but I had to call my landlord to tell him my rent would be late. He offered to get someone over to my hotel with 1000EUR in cash, which then made me more scared about my landlord- but that's another story Grin

You'll both have to confirm recent transactions etc, but if any money's been taken fraudulently, they put it back pretty quickly, on the proviso that if it turns out you've mislead them, they'll hoick it back immediately. Much better than the bad old days when you had to wait weeks. It's a horrible shock, but better they've spotted it than you, at least.

ItsAllGoingToBeFine · 27/11/2015 21:25

For those of you who are worried about PayPal
www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/security/security-protections

Set up 2 step authentication - this means you require your password and your mobile phone to login, making it pretty much impossible for your account to be hacked.

You can also set this up on gmail etc

imgoingdowntown · 27/11/2015 21:29

Whoops should say worked for a bank!

jevoudrais · 27/11/2015 22:30

Mine was cloned at a supermarket atm, the bank fraud team told me it happens often and to try to use atms attached to actual banks if possible because the staff are more vigilant about checking the machines for cloning devices.

I worked in a supermarket whilst at uni. Whenever anyone came in to moan about their card being swallowed etc, we always had to say it was nothing to do with us and to call the bank.

Your point is good in that the shop staff are nothing to do with the ATMs so really wont check them, and I can't see the banks sending their staff out to spot check them every couple of days.

mimishimmi · 28/11/2015 09:57

It is unnerving. We had a credit card scam last year where someone had new cards from an existing account sent to our address. Our letterbox lock had been broken a couple of days prior. Somehow they also found out my husband's phone number and convinced them to redirect calls. One day I tried calling him, couldn't reach him but got a call back from an unidentified number. I was still able to send him Whatsapp messages letting him know this was happening. DH went round to all the banks and found out that one account had been compromised, they'd attempted to defraud another and they were spending up big. They spent the equivalent of about £7000 in 3 days. Months later we saw some CCTV photos and police speculated they were part of some criminal syndicate.