Debit/Credit card fraud

[Vulture]

Shouldn't there be a comma between 'piss off' and 'you annoying git'?

Quite right, Vulch. Just because you're old and vulnerable to scams, he thinks he can become slovenly when addressing you.  :

Had it BEEN a scam, fair enough. But I'd done nothing to provoke this. I still have the card in my possession. I've never given my bank details to anyone.

[Vulture]

She then suggested I go to my nearest branch of Abbey, with proof of identity, and ask for a new card. At no time did she, or my local branch, ask me to fill in any form.

Vulch,
I've learned to my cost that in banking matters, Mel is never wrong. You've basically cancelled your card, that's all. You need to follow it up with something in writing, something with a reference number, a number you can quote when you send irate queries. Somewhere there is a form. Fill it in.

Thanks. I'll write down all your (Mel's) points and phone the Fraud department again tomorrow.

[The Peepmaster]

Shouldn't there be a comma between 'piss off' and 'you annoying git'?

Quite right, Vulch. Just because you're old and vulnerable to scams, he thinks he can become slovenly when addressing you.  :

Had it BEEN a scam, fair enough. But I'd done nothing to provoke this. I still have the card in my possession. I've never given my bank details to anyone.

That is scary, Vulch. Has someone maybe compromised your computer? There are highly sophisticated computer experts out there that can do all kinds of malicious things these days.

Maybe Mince will know. He's a highly sophisticated computer expert himself.

[Vulture]

Shouldn't there be a comma between 'piss off' and 'you annoying git'?

Quite right, Vulch. Just because you're old and vulnerable to scams, he thinks he can become slovenly when addressing you.  :

Had it BEEN a scam, fair enough. But I'd done nothing to provoke this. I still have the card in my possession. I've never given my bank details to anyone.

That is scary, Vulch. Has someone maybe compromised your computer? There are highly sophisticated computer experts out there that can do all kinds of malicious things these days.

Maybe Mince will know. He's a highly sophisticated computer expert himself.

Yeah. But it still doesn't make him a nice person!

[Diamond Lil]

So sorry to hear about this, Vulch.  If it's anything like trying to get compensation out of British Airways for lost baggage, I wish you luck

[Malc]

I still have mixed feelings about British Airways.
When we emigrated, with two babies in tow, the purser on the flight, a little bald man with an unfortunate attitude, made boarding the flight a living hell. He lost his temper, flailed his arms and complained that e had been allowed past check-in with too much baggage.

We tried explaining that with two babies we needed a little more in the way of nappies, bottles, etc than the normal passenger, but he made us unpack and re-pack stuff in front of other passengers.

I was seriously going to hit him, but Mel was muttering to me that I'd get arrested and we wouldn't be allowed on the flight (I was in two minds at that time whether I even wanted to go Oz anyway, but that's another story).

Other passengers were very sympathetic to us, but we were holding up the queue, and unlike other people with babies we had to board last. It was horrible.

On the flight, our older boy became sick and projectile vomited over another passenger (the only one who was forced to sit in our row.). He was also sick on his designated seat. It was swimming in the stuff. My boys can vomit, let me tell you.

The poor passenger, Joao, was a true gentleman, and luckily a professional diplomat. He was an attache to the Portuguese embassy in Canberra. He dismissed his soaked trouser lap as mere bagatelle and insisted that we think no more about it.

The cabin crew did not offer us any cleaning materials, nor any help whatsoever. We had to beg paper towels and as our nappies had been re-packed and sent to the baggage hold, we had no materials of our own. My son sat on the only towel we had been allowed to bring on board, and the smell was rank.

Some years later, when my dad was dying, I had to get back to Scotland p.d.q.
One of the dear friends we have made in Australia had a sister who was very high up in B.A

She arranged for me to get an immediate flight out (within a day) from Oz to the UK at a non-penalty rate and on the way back I found myself upgraded to Business Class. I was sitting next to Geoffrey Hughes (Onslow, Hyacinth Bucket's brother-in-law).

So at the moment, B.A. stand in credit, but think of all the other times we would have flown B.A. instead of KLM, Emirates, Singapore, Royal Brunei, Japan Airlines and others, and all the bad press we have given them over the years because of one little arsehole in 1995.

Vulch, you should send this post to your bank and it may help them refund your money quicker.

[Vulture]

Thanks, DL. As I've said before, when you put it into perspective, no-one died but the inconvenience I have to go through to get everything back the way it was .......  and all because some lazy s*d finds it easier to steal my hard-earned pension than to get a proper job!

I'm lucky. I have sons who are more than willing to give me money to tide me over; what about the really old pensioners that have no-one - how do they manage to cope with this kind of misery. There isn't even the consolation that the perpetrator will be caught and put in the stocks for a week!

[Vulture]

Vulch, you should send this post to your bank and it may help them refund your money quicker.

Malc, I've made a list of all the things I need to ask Abbey and, as soon as I get back from the gym and made myself a cup of coffee, I'll be on the phone! Apparently, if all my blandishments fail, I'm to throw in a comment about reporting this to the police (as it's a crime) and sit back and wait for them to offer to bring me my ?600 personally ....... seemingly, banks don't like the police being brought in because it has to be declared on their shareholders reports and it doesn't look good; I wonder if this is really true? 

[Tarquin Thunderthighs lll]

If it is (and it sounds quite plausible), then just cut to the chase and do it now. I would.

[The Peepmaster]

I don't know if you read The Sunday Times, but in the Money Section, on the Problems Page, Abbey get lambasted for customer relations and failures pretty much every week.

[Vulture]

She then suggested I go to my nearest branch of Abbey, with proof of identity, and ask for a new card. At no time did she, or my local branch, ask me to fill in any form.

Vulch,
I've learned to my cost that in banking matters, Mel is never wrong. You've basically cancelled your card, that's all. You need to follow it up with something in writing, something with a reference number, a number you can quote when you send irate queries. Somewhere there is a form. Fill it in.

Many thanks, Mel and Malc. I got in touch with the bank. Apparently they have completed the form and they'll be sending it to me in the next day or so for me to sign and return AND they've given me a reference number. So everything you wrote above has been dealt with.  I'll just give them a week or two before I start sending the irate letters. 

[Vulture]

I don't know if you read The Sunday Times, but in the Money Section, on the Problems Page, Abbey get lambasted for customer relations and failures pretty much every week.

No, I don't read any newspapers (unless I'm in some else's house and I'm bored) and certainly not The Sunday Times - their crossword is way too difficult for me. I'm more of a Sunday Express magazine crossword fillerouter.

[Malc]

Doing the Times Crossy is more of a case of getting used to it rather than having innate intellectual genius. They compile it a certain way, that's all.

I knew one guy who was a Times Crossword afficionado but in all other walks of life was as thick as pig shit.

[Vulture]

Doing the Times Crossy is more of a case of getting used to it rather than having innate intellectual genius. They compile it a certain way, that's all.

I knew one guy who was a Times Crossword afficionado but in all other walks of life was as thick as pig shit.

Yes, I know. When I was first married my loving husband spent a month of Sundays explaining all this to me, but .........

[Fyodor]

Money is withdrawn without the client's knowledge
A bank or building society may be reluctant to admit that money can be withdrawn without the client's permission. It may suggest one of the following three reasons, and allege that the client is responsible:-
? the client used the card but has forgotten
? somebody else used the card and PIN with the client's permission
? somebody else used the card without the client's permission and, due to the client's neglect, obtained the PIN.

If the client discovers that an unauthorised withdrawal has been made, s/he should tell the bank or building society immediately. If someone else uses the card before the client informs the bank or building society that it has been lost, stolen, or someone else knows the PIN, the most the client will have to pay is ?50, unless the bank or building society can show that the client has acted fraudulently or without reasonable care, that is, s/he has been grossly negligent. If someone else uses the card details without the client's permission, and the card has not been lost or stolen, the client will not have to pay anything, unless the bank or building society can show that the client has acted fraudulently or without reasonable care, that is, s/he has been grossly negligent.

Under the Banking Code, the burden of proving that the client has acted without reasonable care is on the bank or building society, although cooperation from the client is expected.

The Ombudsman has defined gross negligence as 'if not recklessness, something more than ordinary carelessness'. He has also stated that 'it cannot necessarily be inferred from the fact that a fraudster was able successfully to use the card at the first attempt, that the PIN must have been written down, and that the card holder was grossly negligent'.