To tell you to block gambling payments on your banking app

[AgingLikeGazpacho]

Unless you're a gambler?

After getting defrauded almost £500 last night through 24 separate payments I've been on the sorry side of online gambling fraud.

I've since found a feature on many banking apps where you can block online gambling transactions if you go onto your Manage Card settings (at least with Santander, Lloyds and Nationwide).

I received no OTPs or communication from the bank as this was happening and have never gambled. I have banked with them for 12 years so should know this doesn't fit my pattern of behaviour. And yet I caught it by chance as it was happening and froze my card. The bank has been about as useful as a chocolate teapot and have made no guarantees I'll get the money back.

I've not lent the card to anyone and not share my details with family members etc . But having worked in payments myself (the irony!) I know that online gambling is one of the easiest ways to launder money as you can redirect it to another bank account.

Sharing this in case it helps anyone else. Of course I'm not being unreasonable.

Feel free to discuss whatever you want below just to get traction and save someone else the stress of what I'm going through

Thanks

Sorry to hear that. Can I ask which bank is this one?
years ago (around 12) I was stolen £800 in orange , uber and Vue I think. I had to report it to the bank and after an investigation they said they could see it wasn’t me as they weren’t companies I normally deal with. Hope you manage to get your money back

Thanks!

@EasterIssland it was Santander. I was thoroughly unimpressed with their response!

Thankyou just done it on Halifax

Useful info, didn’t know this was possible - seems a no-brainer and was easy to do - thank you.

I thought that gambling sites only let you withdraw any winnings to the card you deposited with.
Hope you manage to get some money back though and thanks for the warning

No problem, glad to have helped! It'd be great if the default option for cards was for these payments to be blocked. Or at least raise awareness that there's a feature to do it easily for you!

I'm not a 'gambler' but I won't turn it off on my First Direct cards because I buy lottery tickets online.

Thank you, have just done this.

Thank you, I'll do this tomorrow.

For some weird reason I'm getting spam texts 2 or 3 times per day offering me 'free spins' and shite.

I keep reporting and deleting but it's a 'new company' every time.

So best to protect my bank just incase 👍

I use mine for the lottery or I would do

What are lottery tickets if they’re not gambling?

…

I think this is a surprisingly common perspective. Same applies to people who don't see bingo as gambling!

I remember a recruiter once reaching out about a job at the Postcode Lottery and being perplexed when I gave them an outright no as I don't believe in gambling. "Ah but it's basically charity" they replied 🤪

Not the point of the thread, but I do find it weird how pervasive gambling is across the UK (having lived abroad for a while in a country where there were no betting shops!)

Thanks, I've just done this. I hadn't seen the setting before.

Thanks for the warning! Just done it with HSBC. I had no idea this was an option. Appreciate you sharing OP

Cute cat

Thanks for letting us know

your bank didn't flag up 24 separate payments in one night? That's pants.

I am set up for 2FA on everything though.

I'm set up with 2FA as well! I have no idea how they didn't flag it as they've previously made me do OTPs on a £5 john lewis transaction!

I made an official complaint with the bank immediately as this is an unacceptable lack of fraud control.

I'll be swapping to a provider that sends text updates for each transaction to prevent this happening again.

Thank you, I have just done this in two banks, three cards. Might as well block anything I don't need to use!

Same here - thanks, OP.

I make a point of going through my banking app every week just to check the 'money out' bit.

In January I saw a rogue £27.40 to Dominos Pizza that was nothing to do with me.

I froze the card immediately, contacted Barclays and they sent me a new one and said they'd refund within 5 working days.

The second I hung up the phone, my app flashed up to say they'd already refunded me.

I was glad I spotted it within a week of it happening though.

The crazy thing is I spotted these transactions while they were still 'pending' and Santander claimed they couldn't block them, or at least try and get the acquiring bank or the gambling company to block the transaction! In fact they said their fraud team couldn't work on the case until the payments went through!

So yeah... whilst I thought I'd managed to catch it before it left, I'm still £500 down and am waiting for an update from the bank 27 hours later.

That’s a good tip OP, I’ve just done it on my Barclays App.