Our bank account has been cleared out

[lougle]

Today my DH said 'why do we have no money??'
I told him not to be so ridiculous, because we have been working really hard to save money and build up a buffer in our account. So I looked at our bank account: available balance £14.

Someone has used almost £2000 on Next and Foot Asylum purchases, with a pizza and a dessert order thrown in .

The irony is that I never buy from Next because we can't afford for me to buy new clothes. I only ever buy from charity shops or (very rarely) Primark. So the fraud claim is very easy to prove. That and the fact that the man on the phone from the bank had to tell me what Foot Asylum is .

The transactions were all in the last day or so, and were all made using DH's card. We also had a letter today from Next, addressed to a man we've never heard of, thanking him for advising them if his change of address. So Next have given us a fraud case ID number and have put a block on account applications from our address. The bank fraud team will contact us tomorrow.

How gutting. We're lucky that DD1's DLA gets paid into a different account, so we can use that for a few days and reimburse it when we get reimbursed by the bank. If it got paid into the same account we'd be absolutely done for.

[VitaSackvileVeste]

My card was cloned, I think it was done at a car hire office at a UK airport, where they obviously got my address and ID details.

The thieving bugger bought a flight to The Far East amongst other things

[toffee1000]

I remember totally and utterly freaking out when I noticed an almost £100 discrepancy between my current balance and available balance on my natwest account- I check online these days. Checking transactions showed nothing. I knew that things didn't show up immediately (can take a day or two), and I knew I'd spent some money at the shops, but not THAT much.
Turns out it was Amazon Prime taking £79 out of my bank account for my account with them- my free trial was up and it costs £79 a year. I didn't realise about the yearly subscription fee as I don't use it. Thank fuck it was nothing serious!!

[dizzyfucker]

That happened to me but they tried to use the card in India and it was blocked because I'd literally called the bank three days before to tell them that I'd be transfering money and using the card in the UK (I live abroad). Luckily they stopped it because of the phone call they got suspicious and called me to check, they were able to trace the clone to a petrol station. Seems to always be at petrol stations.

[ChipsandGuac]

We've had our cards cloned twice. Both times we were back in the UK on holiday. The first time they spent $10k. We got the money back but now have the most frustrating security on our card. I basically can't go on a decent spending spree without the card getting declined. I had to jump through hoops to get my car accepted when I bought a new fridge with my debit card.

[ChipsandGuac]

Card not car!

[mimishimmi]

We had credit card fraud last year - $11,000 AUD in four days. Luckily bank was able to prove it wasn't us with CCTV images of some of the transactions. They were thinking organized crime gang.

[MetalMidget]

We had a Shell petrol station near us that was determined to be the origin for a load of card cloning. They'd clone the card, then there would be small test purchases/withdrawals in Canada, before they started using it for larger amounts.

My mother in law also had a load of cash taken from her account because she compromised her PayPal account (not everybody realises that those emails are scams -_-), fortunately the bank fully refunded her.

I had my card blocked several times about 5-8 years ago, all false positives though (and bizarrely quite often after I'd made an online purchase from fairly well-known companies - I shop online quite often, so I'm not sure why they got flagged). The fraud prevention chap would always sound so disappointed when I told him that I recognised all of the transactions.

[exLtEveDallas]

I had this a couple of years ago, but thankfully Barclays fraud team were on the ball. I took a call sat at my desk in Oxford to ask if I was in a Tesco in London - obviously not!

Barclays were amazing though and put the money back in my account within 36 hours - it was about £1700 IIRC.

[Isetan]

This happened to me ten years ago, I went to use my debit card and it was declined. When I checked online to see what the hell was going on, I saw that my credit card company had debited €2000 from my current account. It transpired that someone in Andorra had maxed out my credit card, luckily my bank reimbursed me within three days (they said longer but I threatened to close my accounts if it took that long).

Locally, there's now generally more security around credit card transactions but given my fraud took place in Andorra, it hasn't changed the odds on it happening again. However, I would be annoyed that Next didn't have secondary authentication on CC transactions, which means the fraudster would need more than just the card details to complete a transaction.

It was very scary but luckily I transfer money regularly to an account that doesn't have standing orders or direct debits attached to it, so I had a buffer.

[mayhew]

I noticed an ATM withdrawal on my online account that wasn't for a round number ie foreign currency. Googling the name came up with Western Australia!

My card was cloned at a Morrisons petrol station. They did loads over a short time and one of the staff told me (they were affected too).

Santander was the only bank involved who were unhelpful. It wasn't difficult to prove I hadn't nipped to Perth in my lunch break.

[Cocolepew]

Its best to use an ATM in banks or ask for cashback like Stratters said.
My DH is an ATM engineer and finds a few cameras/cloning equipment every month.
He says if you are using one to look at the plastic at the sides of the machine. They should be perfectly straight.
If the are curved it will be a false side.
Always cover your hand when putting your pin in, there can be cameras pointing down too.

[DragonMamma]

This has happened to me a couple of times, largely with Apple.

I logged on one day to find £500 taken at the Apple store - somebody had bought an iPad. It's only when I noticed this did I check and see a few smaller purchases of £20-30 over the previous couple of weeks. When I asked the bank how it happened, they said Apple/iTunes store was pretty easy for frausters and they would allow a different delivery address to the billing address, even if it was your first purchase.

Subsequently, I've had numerous (genuine) emails from Apple informing me of my password being changed. So now I don't use it because it's happened almost half a dozen times!

[happypoobum]

This has happened to me twice!! And to my brother. All three times the origin of the scam was found to be petrol stations. I only pay cash now.

Don't let it worry you too much OP, I am sure you will get all your money back.

[Beth2511]

My other halfs card got done recently and they soent about £600 on weird fetish porn! Definitely felt bad checking for the third tike with oh it definitely wasnt him

[spanieleyes]

Apparently I hired three different cars at the same time, all in Ireland. Quite how I was supposed to drive all three at once, I'm not sure!
The bank were very good and stopped my card immediately, made a full refund and sent me a new card at once.

[Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g]

not everybody realises that those emails are scams

How true. I was gobsmacked on a recent visit to my parents to see that their local paper had devoted the best part of a page to an account of someone getting a fraudulent call/email and thinking it was genuine. From the description, it was the sort of email I delete on sight or probably never see at all (I find the spam filters on my email are pretty good these days), or the kind of call I terminate after the first two seconds. However, the area where my parents live has lots of retired people and others who maybe just haven't kept up with the scammers. I suppose they only need a tiny success rate so aren't too bothered if 99.9% of their targets don't bite.

lougle, sorry this has happened to you - I hope it gets sorted out asap.

[almapudden]

My card got cloned at a temporary bar at he Edinburgh festival. I got a call from the HSBC fraud team to ask if I'd spent $1000 in Queens, NY. Was really upsetting as if just finished uni and had no money anyway! Luckily the bank was really good and refunded me within a few days.

[ReginaBlitz]

You didn't post on the "how much do you have in the bank" thread did you?

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Hope you get this sorted.

I also got hacked at Next. Would never have an account there now ever.

[fanjoforthemammaries7850]

Am sure you will get it back

[Nivea101]

This happened to my sister and her husband a few years back, the first they knew about it was when a set of Dr Dre headphones and an iPad turned up at their door from Amazon. Apparently the person scamming must have forgotten to change the address to his or hers when starting the scam!! They wiped £2000 plus from the account but got it back from the bank. My sister sent back the headphones to Amazon at her own cost I think it was about £7 for registered mail and kept asking for the payment back plus to send a courier to pick up the iPad or send the money for her to do so, this went on for 6 months, after no response she opened the iPad and uses it every day.

[Wdigin2this]

Haven't read the whole thread...has it been sorted yet?

[KittyKrap]

Oh crap. Hope it gets sorted quickly. I used the DCs computer once, (ex had keylogged and put God knows what else on it leaving it wide open), to buy a TV table from Wayfair. My account was used to pay two small amounts to Wonga - they start with small amounts to check it'd work. Bank immediately flagged it up but due to moving house it was about two months before I could get my card and pin sorted. I'd have to transfer cash to DPs (now DH) account and withdraw on his card. Pain in the arse.

And yes, my DH loves Foot Asylum, wasn't him though, he hates Next!

[ExtraHotLatteToGo]

Oh Lougle, I'm so sorry. Wankers 😡

At least Next have helped so hopefully it'll get sorted quickly.

I haven't used my CC in a petrol station for years after hearing about this. However, everyone I mentioned it to gave me the 'raised eyebrow' treatment, so I've recently started using it again. Sigh. Better stop again!

I have also been crap at checking bank statements too - another job to add to the list I suppose 😣

[Bubble2bubble]

This is shocking. So sorry lougle, hope it gets sorted asap