Wonga.com scammed £260 from my bank account.

[sneezecakesmum]

Bank informed, money refunded. Police and Wonga informed. Never used Wonga!

Now having to wait 7-10 days for a new card and PIN with no access to my money except traipsing into town to the bank. Do not want to use credit card to take out money (ridiculous rates!) Borrowing off DH

Anyway....how to stop this identity fraud again?

I have AVG (paid/full) anti virus security, Trusteer Rapport, I dont give anyone my card, cover it up where possible w/d money, use paypal where possible, only use sites...... but I do a lot of internet shopping where I give the full 16 digit card number.

Does anyone have any hints on how I can improve safety as this is a major inconvenience? Any websites? How did the bastards scammers get my details?

Probably from one of your internet shops I'm afraid. Or you were just really unlucky.

Wonga have taken money wrongly from quite a few people (I recall some newspaper articles - you might find them on google) as it would appear theydon't do proper checks (like 'is this account in teh same name as the person borrowing money?') so I'd lodge a formal complaint with them too.

Get a Mac or pay with your credit card online.

It was on Watchdog a couple of weeks ago.

I've got a barclaycard where some of my payments go to, are they more secure?

Mac? as in a computer?

Wonga were on watchdog, watched on iplayer and exact same scam. Cannot fathom out how they can justify paying money into one account and taking it out of another! Crazy.

Not much point complaining about Wonga....after all they're the ones who pick up the bill!

Credit cards are not more secure bit the bank doesn't have give you your money back if it was a debit card. You're better protected for fraudulent activity with CC.

I mentioned aMAC comp or a laptop because they are not prone to viruses like PCs are.

Wonga may pick up the bill - but their actions mean that people end up in reall difficulties (Wonga wrongly removes half their bank account contents the day before their mortgage payment is due for example - poor person then ends up with a missed payment, credit reference problems, etc). Wonga knows this is a problem and yet fails to amend its internal procedures or put in place basic fraud prevention measures, which is appalling for a financial institution.

I really would complain.

Yes will write them a stinky letter of complaint then! I saw it in time on online banking but cant imagine the havoc of much larger sums.

Sadly cant afford a new computer or laptop. I never bank or order on my ipad as I'm unsure of their safety.

Wonga are crap for allowing this they are well aware following the watchdog programme!

"Anyway....how to stop this identity fraud again?"

Aside from all the things you're already doing I'd recommend monitoring your accounts online daily so that any discrepancies are picked up straight away. Set up a credit card specifically for online shopping rather than using the debit card on your main bank account - which can be more damaging if someone gets the number. Get a replacement credit card every so often as a precaution. Keep your debit card for cash withdrawals only.

Just dont understand how they got my details. I can spot a scam email a mile away! Its really scary.

Yep, they did the same thing to the place where I work!!

The thick bastards - fancy giving a loan to someone and then taking the payment out of a BUSINESS account.

I think Natwest do identity theft insurance with one of their bank accounts.

It was your main bank account? Debit card? If you use it anywhere outside the home it can be cloned. There are little swipe machines that scammers use to copy details when you hand over your card to pay for things. They can take details off bank statements if you still get paper ones and don't shred them. I had a credit card copied somehow a few years ago and the scammers used it to buy goods from a place in New York... Had never left my side and I largely used it for online shopping in what I thought were reputable places. A friend had his card cloned when returning something to IKEA... they had a bit of a racket going on copying cards at the returns desk.

Cogito...I check my bank fairly quickly, but will do this daily now. Luckily I picked the scam up after 2 days. I do have a barclaycard that pays paypal as it was more secure, so I will do this for all transactions. The balance gets paid off in full so no charges. Also look at reducing the limit on credit cards as one is about 6K

Already decided to pay petrol and shop purchases with cash.

Cheers. What a bugger it all is!

No paper statements on any account, shred everything and ignore scam emails. It WAS my main account and a debit card. Going to rethink security in future especially wrt cloned cards. Never been scammed before so its a bit of a shock realising your financial vulnerability.

I think this is more likely to do with paypal then anything else

Have you received an email from paypal stating you had to renew your details/ or an amount is about to be debited please confirm or similar and clicked on it?

You must have entered your bank account details somewhere on line, in a dodgey email or simila for them to get your details

I don't think it's identity fraud I think you may have inadvertently entered your details in reply to an email tricking you into thinking it was the 'real' company

Had the paypal email Kelper. They'll have to get up earlier to catch me on that one! I never never never (even genuine ones) link to emails with any sensitive details.

I always use the address bar too and not keep banks etc in my favourites.

Good thought anyway Someone somewhere has been caught out.
DH (pillockfeatures) logged in and allowed the microsoft (NOT) team to take over his computer