AIBU to think she is lying?

[DrowningSeas]

I'm more than happy to be corrected on this if anyone is in the know.

I will call her M for the purpose of this.

M has a large background of lying, off the cuff often completely ridiculous and always if she is backed into a corner or questioned on something she has done wrong.

So earlier this week M has messaged me in a state saying their card has been cloned and the transactions have left her overdrawn.

Told her to ring bank, get the card cancelled and then get the money back in into the account and notify wherever the bank say the cards been cloned from.
M said that the bank are putting the money back within 48 hours, when i questioned how much she said 3 transactions of X amount and then another 3 transactions of a different but the same amount.

11 days since payday and this has left her overdrawn which i find odd as we have alot of plans this month and I'm wondering why she's left with so little of wages.. She has a history of being very poor with money also, i feel bad for thinking it but i believe she's spent it all.

Then today, she tells me that she rang the phone banking at 8am and was told she needs to go into a branch as they can't help on the phone. She tried to ring the branch but they didn't open till 9 but a person called her back mid morning.

This is where i am unsure on facts...

The bank have told her that the case is still with the fraud team and her balance will stay negative until they've resolved which can take upto 7 days.
But then, they've put £150 of the balance into a different account (savings) which she can only access over the counter

Would a bank do this if they are still investigating? What if it wasn't fraud and they've just handed over money?

I really want to think she is being honest, but i am very unsure a bank would do that? Surely if they were happy it's fraud they would just restore her balance?

I'd just leave her to it. Listen when she talks to you about it, but just let her be.

Maybe she is lying, maybe she isn't; but don't concern yourself with it (I mean this nicely!)

It's a very close family member. So i inevitably be drawn into the cross fire if it comes out there's lying involved.

Do you think a bank would do that?

What cross fire is she asking people for money??

Why is this your business?

Not the same situation but a friend had his account frozen before because of suspicions of fraud. He left his cheque book at his ex's and never cancelled it because he's fucking stupid and the ex tried to cash a series of cheques which all bounced because he had no money in.
He got paid into the frozen account and could go into branch to draw out money as long as he could prove where it came from (took his payslip)

Because if she is lying there will be a huge family fall out.

It's my business because i will gladly help her through the rest of the month, but really don't want to be lied to.

Thanks hazey that's interesting, she said she needed to take i.d with her.

What do you mean? Would they give her the GBP150 before investigation over? Possibly. A few months ago I tried to withdraw GBP500 from a cash point at a supermarket, the transaction appeared to complete but the machine didn't give me the money. I called my bank and explained what happened and they said it had debited my ac. They said they'd have to investigate which would take up to ten days as it wasn't their cash machine and they'd need to liaise (they said it wouldn't be a problem because the cash machine would show it had GBP500 too much in it IYSWIM) I explained I really needed the money right away so they credited my ac immediately but explained in the event of the cash machine provider disputing it they'd have to debit it again. So yes it's possible.

I've had my card used fraudulently with amazon, 3 transactions at £400 a go. That could take someone into their overdraft.

Does she have borderline personality disorder? Symptoms include difficulty with money and possibly lying (some say it is a symptom, others a byproduct).

Act neutral about it, give her attention for other stuff.

Just to add, when it was taken via amazon I had to wait 7 days for it to be refunded by amazon fraud squad, not my bank.

When my card was stolen it took a week to get the money back. The bank said they had to process the transactions before they could refund me.

They did quite a few contactless transactions of the same amount and then a couple of transactions for a lot more.

So her story sounds plausible to me.

DH works with a bank and he is confident that yes, a bank would do that, especially Barclays.

Surely if they were happy it's fraud they would just restore her balance?

The banks have to credit money taken in obvious fraud back immediately. I.e. when they are obviously/clearly at fault. They can delay refunding money while they investigate if they believe the customer has been grossly negligent with the security of their account or tried to commit fraud. If they have evidence to prove the customer was at fault then they obviously won't refund.

The bank have told her that the case is still with the fraud team and her balance will stay negative until they've resolved which can take upto 7 days.

This sounds right. If it's unclear what's happened or they have reason to believe the customer is to blame, then they will need to investigate to establish if it was fraud before crediting the money back. For example, if money is taken out using a pin code and it is not clear how the pin was obtained.

Also they may not want to credit an account if it has been compromised - e.g. if it is unclear how the fraudster obtained the details. They might suggest to close the account and open a new one with totally new a/c no. Perhaps this would explain why they credited a small amount of the money to a different account (savings). It does seem odd considering she said it was debit card fraud, unless they have reason to believe her entire bank account details are compromised making her current account unsafe and causing them to freeze it while they investigate.

I uses to work in this area of banking.