£900 gone to cryptocurrency company-bank won't refund

[SeriousAlligator]

My partner had two separate amounts go missing from her bank account over a short period of time, to a 'cryptocurrency' company. The bank will not refund. I've written three letters to them advising they're breaking their own policies by not refunding this money (using quotes from their own complaints policy website) as it is an unusual transaction, an unusual amount of money, at 0200 so an unusual time, etc etc.

All their responses have been along the lines of that the transaction required a pin for her internet banking to have been inputted-therefore they think my partner paid this money and is lying.

£900 is a lot of money to anyone, and I just think it is absolutely disgusting. Ombudsman is the next step I guess. Anyone ever been successful with this sort of thing, any advice?

I had a similar thing happen when my card was 'cloned' or such but my bank blocked most of the transactions and refunded me for the ones they hadn't, no problem! I just can't believe how obtuse her bank are being. She's been with them for 20 years!

I received this scam email the other day. Could this be relevant?

Thank You for choosing Paypal Your order BITCOIN.
Your order has been successfully placed.
The Payment will be shown soon within next 5 to 10 hours on PAYPAL.
PRODUCT INFORMATIO
Memo Id
: SDFGZ6789YT
Item Name
: BITCOIN (BTC)
Order Placed Date
: 2nd July 2022
Receiving Date
: DAY After Place The order.
Price
: 234.55 USD
Mode of payment
: PYPL INC
If you Wish to Cancel then please feel free to contact our Billing
Department as soon as Possible.
You can reach us on + 1 (8 6 6) - (5 9 6) - (0 7 5 8)
Regards,
Paypal Billing Department

Could she have responded to some sort of similar email?

Winter2020 "Recent article on the news of flurry of people using their cards in ATMs that were then used to withdraw funds from nearby ATMs without the card I believe."

how did that happen please?

It sounds like the transaction was done using 2 factor authentication.

so when the payment was input, it will have directed her to log on to internet banking and input details of the transaction. The only way to do that this is with the full log on details of the account.

It sounds to me as though your girlfriend made the transaction and is now crying fraud because they’ve got cold feet. I don’t blame the bank for not refunding.

Banks don't just make payments out of your account to anywhere out of the blue, and if it was fraud, it's unlikely it would just be two payments from one customer's account. You need to talk to your GF.

And also - it's your GF's account, so letters of complaint from you will hold no truck with the bank. She'd need to complain herself but she's unlikely to do that for reasons that are obvious to everyone else

If you look at OP posts, she writes the letters and her girlfriend signs them.

@deplorabelle I don't know them well. All her family and their partners/friend. Nobody took her 'phone for the evening though and she took it to the tent to charge when she went to bed (charging point in our 'bedroom'). It is unlikely albeit not impossible. She knows them all well however, not many of us, all known one another for years apart from me.

@TheSummerySilveryPussycat

Maybe! I will ask. Thanks for that :)

@Winter2020 No I haven't but I will ask her to now. That (about the ATM transactions) is so worrying isn't it? I am not going to drop this yet-still definitely the possibility something untoward has occured given her having been in contact with coinbase (which I apologise, I had forgotten about).
I have asked that she changes all her security with the banking app.

I (as part of my job) did a course on 'women and gambling', recently. One thing I remember from it is about how the release of seratonin in the brain is similar to that one could get from hard drugs. Ridiculously addictive.

In my old age I have learned that not everyone is who they seem. I am hoping I am really not missing something here.

Thank you for the heartfelt response :)

@Marmite27 nor do
I of course, if that's what has happened. But coinbase not having a record of her email? I have gone on her email (with her knowledge, again she asked me to!) and written to them asking if she has an account with them, or if they have any record of her bank details. No response as yet.

@MrsOwainGlyndŵr of course I am not writing 'as me', I am writing as her, she's reading, approving and signing. I am not that uneducated, just puzzled completely about what has happened here, and also if she has done this herself, why she would even tell me, let alone ask me to help her sort it out.

Are you sure the emails are from coinbase? What's the sender email address?

@Hibiscusroses it is [email protected].

I was going to post, pretty sure OP is a woman! You write like a woman! And a man probably wouldn't be so supportive ;-)

You get the ombudsman involved and they investigate then make the bank pay out. There's a process.

as a lesbian I'm accused of being a misandrist on the regular, so I shan't comment on that one :)

I understand the ombudsman is the next step once this one is exhausted (I think I mentioned that in my OP).

I think with Coinbase you have to scan in your driver's licence or other ID, don't you?

Banks see everything. They'll be able to see the device used to authenticate the payment, the IP address, if biometrics were used - everything!

If she's had to verify coin base, there might well be an audit of that too, such as verification on her card

By all means write, but be prepared to be given all the evidence they have showing it was your girlfriend

@ny20005 I'd be happy to get to the bottom of it no matter what! If it is her it is going to be a difficult conversation but more so for her than me given she's asked me to help verify what's happened. I don't understand why anyone would do that if it were their doing, but humans are strange. She knows I'll do my best with it and if she has authorised it will be likely to find out-she's given me her email password to communicate with coinbase.

Coinbase are saying they don't know of her details, last email they sent. I have written to them asking for clarification as they didn't go into enough detail for me to be certain, but as it stands they're saying they don't have any of her details on file.

@HollowTalk wtalk from what a previous poster said it seems they're very strict

If Coinbase are saying they don't know of her surely she (you as her) can ask them to look at the receipts at that end to see where the cash us ending up?

I'm really surprised that coinbase will even say whether or not there's an account associated with that email address - it seems surprisingly security-lax to send that out on request. Are you sure that you, and your partner, are talking to Coinbase and not to a scammer impersonating them?

Don't be so sure that she did it. On Monday my son saw the €600 was taken out if his bank by a crypto currency account he had used once about a year ago. He hadn't been near it in months.
We are in Ireland and he called his bank Monday afternoon where they inverlstigated and the money was put back to his account Tuesday. Apparently they are aware of a scam and his card has been cancelled for a new one.

I agree with PP, there's something a bit odd about this which is why I was asking which email address she used. Did she email [email protected] from the outset or did she go via their support page?

*where they investigated!

It sounds like the bank haven't raised a chargeback as all the evidence they have implies it was her

She needs to be able to provide a plausible point of compromise as to how this might have happened

Her drunk in a tent & someone sneaking in to take her phone & use her finger to unlock phone probably won't wash though

If the bank raise a chargeback, they can only do this once so can't raise it as a dispute afterwards if she decides to tell the truth after claiming it wasn't her

I’m late to the party, apologies, but I noticed that you mention your partner goes to bed very early yet still sleeps in right through to the late evening.

It’s perfectly possible that this has a medical cause, but in light of the strange bank activity could it be possible that she’s waking up in the night to secretly invest in crypto/gamble without anyone knowing? A lot of the major online crypto communities are US-based, and would be most active during the night (assuming you are from the UK).

Might just be a wild theory, but it stuck out as strange to me.

@SeasonFinale I am emailing them as we speak to ask them these questions. I've given them an alternate email address she sometimes uses, as they've said the one she's emailing them from isn't registered (she only uses the other one for one website and nothing to do with coinbase on any email on it).

@Hardbackwriter I have just learned that she got the email address from googling 'coinbase email address' however I have tried that and can't find one. I did however find their help page which does clarify that any email address with '@coinbase.com' is trustworthy as it is their owned domain, so it looks to be legitimate.

@youwouldthink thank you. I am treating it as if it wasn't her for now, as I would like to get to the bottom of it either way and that seems the best route to take.
@Hibiscusroses yes she emailed them from the outset. I am not sure why she didn't use their support page, I certainly would have done as a starting point.

@ny20005 She wasn't drunk but I know what you mean! That's her fault and I'd agree with them if that is what happened.

@MyMigraineAndMe and me she has seen a GP about the sleep issue and theyve said it could be any number of things. Told her to take a vitamin D supplement, and that her anxiety may make her tire easily. You do make a good point and as I've said, I am a bit of a cynic about people and their motives. When I am with her she never wakes up in the night but then she wouldn't because I would usually wake up and wonder what she were doing.