I got a text from my bank last night, saying there had been some suspicious activity on my account, and they asked me to call their Fraud Dept. Obviously I had to be sure this really was the bank, so rang my branch first thing this morning, they gave me the number of the Fraud Dept, and I made the call from work.
You may have seen the advert, where a man loses his bank card, he calls his bank who give him an emergency code, to obtain cash? Well basically someone rang my bank yesterday, claiming to be me, asking for an emergency code due a lost card. God knows how they got through telephone banking security, but they managed to obtain an emergency PIN and withdrew £200. However – and this is the bit that really annoys me – the bank thought it suspicious, so they flagged it to their Fraud Dept and disabled my telephone banking access, and sent me a text asking me to call.
The lady I spoke to was quite insistent that I must have given my card details to someone. I didn’t. She wanted to know how they got past Telephone Banking Security without me having disclosed my password. I said I had no idea. She asked if I suspected someone. I don’t. She suggested it was usually a partner or work colleague who commits these type of frauds. Rubbish. None of these people know my passwords etc and I never disclose my PIN to anyone. I then got the usual questions – like have I responded to any odd phone calls, or phishing emails. No I haven’t. Finally she agreed the £200 would be returned to my account by the end of today, and a file would be sent to the police.
Fine, but answer me one question: if the bank thought the fraudulent call was suspicious enough to be flagged to their own internal security dept, then why on earth give the caller access to my cash? This was definitely a bank error, but they don’t help themselves, do they?
I’m seriously p*ssed off.