Fraud help, online bank scam

Soldato
Joined
7 May 2004
Posts
5,503
Location
Naked and afraid
A family member has just called to say they had 20k stolen from their account in a matter of minutes, they stupidly filled in a 'bank email' that was sent to them.

They've called the bank and frozen their account but is there anyway of getting this money back? Surely these things are traceable and reversible or is it not that simple?

They gave me the impression the bank told them 'it's lost'. :confused:

Said person is obviously very, very distressed!

I'm just amazed they answered one of those emails... Jesus H Christ!
 
Yea the bank should give it straight back once they believe it was fraud not by the balance holders ...

I got £11,600 stolen from a cloned credit card in about 2 hours. I didn't pay any extra money for any insurance or anything. One phone call, about 4 minutes long, and they refunded the entire amount straight on to the card.

Giving bank details over email though? Holy mother of god I didn't think anyone was that silly. Can you please inform them I am a Nigerian prince with 55 million pounds, and I will give them 10% if they finance my leaving the country??
 
God, that's terrible. Some of those scams look so realistic and scare you into providing your details with notices of termination of accounts and what not. You'd think the bank could do something.

Hope it get's resolved.
 
Depends if they are covered, didn't the bank tell them anu other this on the phone. £20k! Would be the 1st things I'd ask....what a plonka!
 
I got £11,600 stolen from a cloned credit card in about 2 hours. I didn't pay any extra money for any insurance or anything. One phone call, about 4 minutes long, and they refunded the entire amount straight on to the card.
Nice credit limit.


Giving bank details over email though? Holy mother of god I didn't think anyone was that silly.

^^ I didn't realise that people still fell for such scams.
 
Too late to call them idiots now, I've already lost my temper with them!

They literally did this an hour ago, spoke to the bank and they said nothing about stopping the transaction etc?

It takes a number of working days for a transfer to occur so why the heck can't they just cancel/stop it?

I've told the family member to call the bank back and demand the transaction be cancelled... surely it's that simple?!
 
Giving bank details over email though? Holy mother of god I didn't think anyone was that silly. Can you please inform them I am a Nigerian prince with 55 million pounds, and I will give them 10% if they finance my leaving the country??

It was one of those plastered in the official bank email livery with concealed links and even an advert for anti-fraud... I guess if you're not that aware it looked perfectly legit.

Obviously anyone who understands can see the dodgy link in the footer of the email app, but they aren't big computer users and easy targets for this crap.

A chap at work even mentioned the Inland Revenue email the other day, he was half fooled and he's a programmer!
 
Are banks insured for this sort of thing? Or do they refund you the money and then chase after where ever it went?
 
I really hope they didnt mention to the bank that they replied to a fraud email!

They should have just said "20k has gone from my account, it wasnt me i want it back".... now it seem they have just admitted to giving thier details away themselves!
 
Well I just had a call back, apparently the bank have reported it to the fraud department who have frozen the account and ALL transactions.

The first person they spoke to at the call centre (Alliance and Leicester) knew this but failed to mention the money was on hold...! Talk about panic over what appears to be nothing now!

Call centre monkey said the cash was lost when in fact, it wasn't.

Jeez, anyway, we can all stop worrying now. I told her to never ever ever read bank related emails, just bin them, if the bank needs you they'll write you a letter of call!
 
Jeez, anyway, we can all stop worrying now. I told her to never ever ever read bank related emails, just bin them, if the bank needs you they'll write you a letter of call!

Tell her to never respond to any e-mails not just banks unless it's someone she knows, or ask someone who knows what their doing to see if it's a scam.

It's amazing how many people actually fall for these though, it's not like you would give your card details to a random man (or woman) in the street dressed in a suit wearing a bank badge..
 
Yeh all should be ok, the bank has a duty of care, and they shouldn't just be authorizing random 20k transactions via email. It might be a temporary worry or Inconvenience.

You don't really need insurance for this kind of thing as the bank can quickly analyse your spending patterns, and decide to flag a transaction that doesn't fit, such as someone who earns 20k a year, emptying their savings account to invest in a Russian condom factory.

Infact I got a call from my banks fraud dept when I subscribed to an online game. It was legitimately but it shows they are looking.
 
How can someone so naive have that much money :/

Err quite easily if its a credit card, or said victim is over the age of 50, my nan does online banking and internet purchases and needless to say I have educated her in these things, but its easy to see how some people fall for it without some coaching from someone who is savvy, it took me two hours to teach her how to grab a picture of the net and crop it and mail it to someone.

With an older person without advice , its easy to see how it happens.
 
Back
Top Bottom