Bank fraud

[littletikes27]

I was out shopping yesterday and used my card as normal, paid for parking etc.

I must have dropped my purse in between the machine and my car as when I got home I had notification from my bank saying £1500+ had been spent on Ryan air flights and I needed to authorise payment to very and Argos. I contacted my bank straight away and froze my card and waiting while they looked into it.

Today they have came back and said they'll not be reimbursing me as they can't see how it was made by a third party. I said a payment that big should have needed authorising anyway and they have now closed my account with no intention of giving me my hard earned money.

I have looked online and it says I'm covered under the payments services legislation but they don't seem to care.

Has anyone had any experience this and what can I do? 😒

Firstly, they are treating it like a dispute and its not, it's fraud so the right team isn't even dealing with it.

If you're in Europe, you are covered by the payment services directive and they should be refunding you.

In order to contact the Financial Ombudsman, you must have raised a complaint with the bank and a 'final response' letter from them. Without that, they will just refer you back to the bank. The bank have a maximum of 8 weeks to investigate and provide this.

First thing to do though is to get hold of the fraud department at the bank.

Can't upload another pic for some reason! I have told them all this and they have said that they have nothing else to say on the matter and my bank will be closed by 8pm!!!

The bank is Monzo! Should have known I would have no protection with them

The 8 week complains rules don’t apply for these types of disputes, the bank only have 15 days to make their decision. Tell them you’re making an official complaint, not a dispute, and the clock starts ticking.

Post this all over their social media, complain to the ombudsman and report it (as in the theft) to the police.

Make a formal complaint and contact the police. That's absolutely shocking service.

I bank with Monzo and I can't buy a bus ticket online without authorising it through the app, because of the new SCA directive from the EU. How did that £1500 go through? Are they saying you authorised it through the app? Or was it a purchase made over the phone? I'd certainly challenge them as to how it was allowed to be authorised. Why, for instance, did you get notifications about very and Argos but not Ryanair?

Monzo say
Using Monzo to make payments online is safe 3D Secure is designed to make it safer when you buy something online. It’s the experience you go through when you buy something online with your traditional bank. It usually pops up in your browser when you’re paying with your card, and asks you to enter a passcode before you can make the payment.

But because passcodes can be annoying to keep track of, people often choose numbers that are easy to remember but easy to guess.

So we built 3D Secure the Monzo way! Unlike other 3D Secure systems, we don’t ask you to enter numbers from a passcode. Instead, we get you to verify your online purchases in-app or by text instead. This lets us know you’ve got access to your phone, your app, and your card details, and confirms you’re really you.

So if you didn't respond why did they process payment?

monzo.com/help/emergencies/make-complaint
Has a phone number, have you spoken to them that way?

They are refusing to tell me anything! I have said is it disgusting how their lack of security means I am now down £1500. I spoke to someone via the phone Number but they kept saying they can't discuss fraud Over the phone.

This is the black hole you fall into when using Monzo and Curve, because those cards are DEBIT cards and don’t offer the same fraud protection as if you had used your credit cards directly. Suggest you contact the bank / credit card account on which your monzo card is attached and explain what happened - they should be able to help.

Outrageous!

(Will never be banking with Monzo....)

I agree with everyone advising contacting financial ombudsman.

Not quite the same but when my DH was subject to a fraud involving Facebook, PayPal and them taking £2500 via PayPal over the course of a few hours if spent an afternoon calling round the bankamd PayPal who all said he was liable as was from his Facebook account (which was hacked). He rang financial ombudsman who told him exactly what to tell the bank, they also said to come back and they would pick it up on his behalf. Funnily enough the bank then immediately refunded when he told them what he'd done. Would highly recomend you contact them

Those responses sound machine-generated to me. Too much repetition "thank you for confirming that for me" and lack of specificity. You need to get through to a human ... but you haven't been able to do that directly, so go via Financial Ombudsman to get your case looked at by a human via an indirect route.

Thank you for posting this. I was considering banking with Monzo.

Interesting quote from their website:

"How we communicate changes how people feel about us, so we’d better make sure our words reflect what we stand for"

I'm with Monzo and I have to authorise online purchases in the app which is a pain but I like it as it's supposed to be secure.

Why did they authorise it ?! Their fault.

The FOS won't consider a complaint until the firm has issued their final response letter. Do not go straight to them - you need to make a complaint to Monzo first.

I order stuff a lot online and have only had to authorise once or twice, but I mean £1500!!! Why on earth would they let that go through!

Complaint response:

My name is Lauren and I work on the complaints team here at Monzo.

We’re sorry that you’ve had cause to complain, I can confirm we are treating this as a formal complaint. We will be conducting an investigation and will issue you with a final response once this has been completed.

We would love to hear how we can best resolve this for you and if there are any particular points you would like us to review in detail, this will help us deal with your complaint promptly. Similarly, if you can let us know what you would consider to be an appropriate resolution to your complaint please do let us know.

In accordance with regulatory guidelines we’re allowed up to fifteen business days to produce, what is referred to as, our final response. You can expect to hear back from us on or before the close of business on the 1st of November 2019.

I've attached a link to our complaint procedure for your reference [here](https://monzo.com/help/emergencies/make-complaintt_).

Kind regards,

Customer Advocacy Team


I used to work in complaints for a bank so I would recommend you do the following (because even if Monzo find not in your favour, when they send it to the FOS they undoubtedly will):

1. Timeline of events. Be as precise as you can. Final legit spend made at hh:mm for £x in AnyShop. Exited carpark at hh:mm as evidenced by my ticket payment at hh:mm. Arrived home to realise I didn't have my purse and had two purchase requests at hh:mm
2. What you want as a resolution. Refund of all fraudulent payments, any refund of payments you had to make using a credit card that you may have been charged for - all that sort of stuff. If you have to go into an overdraft or use savings, then you want 3% interest calculated on top of all the moneys you have not been able to access as this could have been earning interest elsewhere. Think about what you want as comp for distress and inconvenience as well - they probably have authorisation for about £200 without referral to higher authority but obviously it's entirely up to you what you think is appropriate.
3. If you have a specific timeline that you need this money back by for bills or whatever, then make sure you appreciate their timelines but you require a response by X date. Ask them to give you the money while they investigate and they can recoup if they still find not in your favour - they may protest but this is of course absolutely possible. As they have closed your account I would speak to another bank about opening an account elsewhere.
4. Tell them that as a resolution you only require your account to be reopened to get your money back and that you will of course be going to another provider.

PS - you absolutely do not need to go to branch for any of the above, I know this isn't relevant for Monzo but if you go with a high street branch I guarantee that the people on the phone will be able to help you just as well or probably better. This is true of all high street banks.

Another vote for explicitly telling them that you will tale it to the Financial Services Ombudsman if they do not resolve the complaint I'm your favour. Free for you, costs the bank at least £600 even if the FOS doesn't find in your favour.

And change banks!

I have told them I'm going to the ombudsman and they just keep saying it won't overturn their decision!! I have responded to the complaint email so we will see what they say now. Can't believe it!

Is that not just an auto reply?

See if you can find the CEO's email, or contact him directly on Twitter. Your issue has got stuck in a "Complaints" loop but this is fraud. It requires completely different treatment.

I presume you've already done this but try googling "unauthorised payments with Monzo" I found someone on Reddit with a similar issue that got resolved.

They are treating you shoddily, but to be honest the fact that the online agent used little handclap emojis would have me heading for another bank without delay.