Tag: Crime

Adventures with Identity Theft – Who Needs a Pay Day anyway?

January 17, 2020January 16, 2020 · 1 Comment ·

From where we left off – the mystery of why only £9637.12 had been transferred to a mysterious holding account by HSBC had not yet been solved. My bank account was frozen. And here we are at Pay Day, that one day of the month that many look forward to! I was racking up payments on my credit card, and getting more and more concerned.

So, payday arrives and… nothing, when I get back home from work and logged in to my online banking to check. I had bills that were supposed to go out in 3 days time. This is a Friday, roughly over 2 weeks after this whole debacle began because there is a scumbag out there with my personal information. Which, according to the police, is just fine.

I phone HSBC in a panic. They tell me that while they don’t know anything/cannot tell me anything, I can get my pay released if I go into a bank tomorrow with a payslip and some identification. Which of course, I hadn’t printed off at work, because I did not have my brain in gear. I phoned work, and thankfully my boss was still in – he was able to get my payslip for me, and I dashed back to the office to get it. I then had an appointment arranged with a bank for the next day (a Saturday). Note that the bank I had been to the previous two times was closed on Saturdays, meaning that I had to go to another branch instead.

So, I go into the bank, where I get to sit down with awesome bank manager. (Again, no sarcasm here – the people I met in person at HSBC were hands down awesome). I go through everything that has gone on up to this point. Turns out that he is the one who trained awesome lady at the other branch! Anyways, with my payslip in hand, and a statement of fury on my behalf, he toddles off to phone the ALL POWERFUL ACCOUNT REVIEW TEAM and hopefully tear them a new one.

A couple of minutes later, he comes back, furious – wouldn’t you know, the accounts review team don’t work at weekends? My account is in a state where even the actual branch manager of the bank cannot see what is going on with my account. Because the Account Review team says so.

Sucks to be me, I guess.

I had to go home and stew in my own rage. There’s nothing else to do, but I now have direct contact information for the Branch Manager and awesome lady who was helping me out at the other branch.

The first day of a new month comes. None of my payments have gone out. I phone the mortgage company, to ask what I can do. They say that there are 3 days leeway on direct debits, so as long as the payment turns up within that 3 day window, my interest rates on my mortgage won’t be affected.

The Branch Manager keeps me updated via email – he thinks he has figured out the discrepancy in the money that was taken from my account – the left over £362.88 is apparently the difference in transactions that occurred in my account between the £10,000 landing in it, and money I’d spent before I got in touch with HSBC to ask them to send the £10,000 back. The Accounts Review Team for some strange reason opted to deduct these payments from the £10,000 owed. Sadly, while he has solved the mystery, he’s still heard nothing from the Accounts Review team.

Almost to the end of this tale. My account has been locked for almost 3 weeks at this point. I log in, and see that my accounts are all updated! Direct debits have gone out for my bills and mortgage! Rejoice! Right at the deadline to. My pay had been moved into my second account (as a result of my going in previously and asking it to be moved there, as I’d hoped to be able to access it that way). Except the additional £362.88 is still there, messing up my spreadsheets and making me feel sad. I ask the Branch Manager to see if he can chase up the Account Review team to get that removed, as it’s not my money, and if I can get the account number and sort code on my account changed.

Turns out I would have to close the account and open a new one. Which is ultimately what I opted to do – though I had to keep the old account open for an additional 1 and a half months, while the Account Review team had a word with themselves and decided to finally take the £362.88 that they hadn’t take before. I even opted to stay with HSBC even after the ineptitude displayed by the Account Review team – because let’s face it – their process stopped me getting access to my own cash, but it also stopped an imposter getting it to. Double edged sword, I guess.

For what it’s worth, I did raise a complaint with HSBC about their Account Review teams handling of this. I was offered £100 in compensation (which I turned down, as all I wanted was to pay my flipping bills on time), and the ultimate response I got was ‘We followed our processes’. I saw little point in pursuing it further. Their Account Review team have no accountability to the general public, which I kind of understand. The actual staff who do deal directly with customers face to face have in my experience been amazing.

So, this did all eventually get resolved. It took almost 3 months to have all my credit reports sorted out (as the loan did end up there due to the mistake at Hitachi Capital), bank accounts all sorted out, and for Hitachi to stop mistakenly sending me angry letters about not paying their direct debit. The thing that still disappoints and angers me in all this is that the person who decided to try and rip me off will never have to face justice for this. It took a good few months to sort out my finances from having to pay 2 months worth of expenses in one go (thanks to my credit card), time off work to deal with banks and credit agencies, and all the stress that not knowing what is going on with your finances can bring. That scumbag is still out there with all my personal details that I can’t change. And that really upsets me.

This has gotten long, though. Thanks for reading! I’ll detail in my next post things that you can do if you find yourself in a similar situation, or to try and prevent something similar happening to yourself.

Stay safe!

Adventures with Identity Theft – Shenanigans with HSBC

January 16, 2020January 15, 2020 · 1 Comment ·

Click here for part 3.

Where we left off, I had found out that £9637.12 had been removed from my bank account to ‘somewhere’, and HSBC had told me that I needed to go to a branch again with my identification.

At this point, I was really worried. Where had this strange amount sent to? Did Hitachi have their loan money back yet?

So. The bank. A more local to home one, this time. I went in for my appointment, and got chatting to an absolutely awesome lady (I mean that in all seriousness, no sarcasm here!) who had me go through everything – the bank needed to follow their process, so they wanted the full story off me. Fair enough.

She then explained to me that the £9637.12 had been moved to one of HSBC’s internal transfer accounts to send back to Hitachi by the HSBC Account Review team. She didn’t know why it wasn’t the full £10,000. She then dropped a bombshell on me.

My account had been locked, pending the review by the Account Review team.

This could have been really bad news. I kept calm, figured that I have my credit card for any immediate purchases, and this should hopefully be cleared up soon, right? After all, I’d done nothing wrong here – HSBC had stopped the fraudulent activity as it was happening, I’d been fully transparent in everything that had gone down, I’d updated all my security and was able to prove my identity. Right?

The lady at the bank couldn’t give me any details on how long this review process should take. She didn’t know why this action was appropriate, given that as far as I was concerned, HSBC had up to now done everything perfectly – they had stopped a fraudster getting into my account! She tried to phone the Account Review team, and they wouldn’t tell her anything either.

I asked her to look into why the full amount was not taken, and I went home feeling rather annoyed with the situation, but trying to be understanding that in this day and age, all those little check boxes need to be ticked off just so that we can all say that ‘due process was followed’.

When I got home, I called Hitachi Capital Finance to confirm that they had received the £10,000 back. The answer to this was ‘yes’. Which was great! But then they let me know that due to something wonky in their system, a new £10,000 loan had been opened against the same original loan, and the thing had somehow fallen outside of their fraud reporting – so they’d sent me some letters, which I should get in the next couple of days.

Fabulous. It’s worth noting that this resulted in an account for the loan being added to my credit report. Which I promptly got removed by Experian.

I then settled in to wait for things to get sorted out. Life mostly returned to normal for a few days – then I had a letter from HSBC saying that I had to go to the bank with my identification again. I phoned the bank, went through all the same security things, and was verbally told the same. My question was ‘Has something else happened?!?’ and the response was ‘Sorry’.

So, off I toddled. I made an appointment with the same lady I had spoken to previously. It turns out that HSBC just send letters late, apparently. There wasn’t actually a need for me to come in with my ID again (thanks, dude on the phone!). I did query when my accounts would be getting unlocked, as we were getting close to month end. No money could enter or leave my account in its frozen state, and I have things arranged to have my direct debits going out on the first of the month for my bills. Most I could pay off my credit card if it came down to it, but one of those payments is pretty important – my mortgage payment, which cannot be paid from a credit card. In addition, payday is on the last working day of the month.

The nice lady could not get any answers for me. The Accounts Review team are apparently akin to Gods at HSBC. They never have to answer directly to customers. They apparently don’t even have to answer to the poor sods working in their branches and give them any information either. They certainly don’t have to bother phoning their colleagues back, it would seem!

She left me with the reassurance (though little hope) that she would do what she could to try and chase up the status of my frozen accounts before the end of the month, and also that she would see what she could do to at least make sure my mortgage got paid out on time.

‘Ragey’ is once again applicable to describe how I felt about this. I felt like I was being treated like some kind of criminal. The police had already declared that what had happened was not a crime. I had proven my identity to the bank to get things locked down. The £10,000 was in the hands of Hitachi Capital Finance, even if the amounts in my account were still off. No fraudster had gotten hold of any cash. HSBC had prevented it happening – why did they need to lock my personal finances down?

I’ve never been late on a payment in my life, and with no communication about why, the powers in the HSBC Account Review team had decided it was the sensible thing to not take the full £10,000 from my account for Hitachi, but to also freeze all my account with HSBC while they looked into things. Spending was racking up on my credit card, and there was still no end in sight.

I’ll leave it here for now. The next post should be the last in this whole saga. Thanks for following along!

Adventures with Identity Theft – What the Police Said.

January 15, 2020January 14, 2020 · 1 Comment ·

Click here for part 2.

Where we left off, I had been to the bank to get things sorted out there, I’d been in touch with Experian, and I had raised a report with Action Fraud UK. So far so good.

The good probably stops there. I find the rest of this story infuriating on many, many levels.

Here is the response I got back from Action Fraud UK about this (copied and pasted from the email)

You recently made a report which we recorded under NFRC************

Home Office Counting Rules set out the circumstances under which we can record a crime and on this occasion the matter you reported to us cannot be classified as a police recorded crime. Home Office Counting Rules for Fraud and Cyber Dependent Crime can be found online at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/counting-rules-for-recorded-crime.

You have indicated within your report that the misuse of your personal details or that of a company trading style played a part in the matter you are reporting. The use of another person’s identity, often referred to as identity theft, is not a police recordable crime. Where the details are used to obtain goods or services, we can only record a crime on behalf of the person or organisation which was defrauded as a result of the misuse of an identity.

An example of a situation in which we could record a crime would be where details were used to obtain credit, the use of which left the provider of credit with a financial loss. In these circumstances we would record a crime for the provider of the credit and look to establish if there was scope for the matter to be investigated.

Whilst the misuse of your identity cannot be classified as a police recorded crime, we do recognise that identity theft can cause significant distress and inconvenience. For advice and support, please see www.actionfraud.police.uk/fraud_protection/identity_fraud.

What happens next?

Whilst we have not recorded this matter as a crime, we will still make use of the information you have provided. Information reports are utilised to enrich the overall intelligence picture which assists with the formulation and refinement of prevention strategies.

If you have any queries regarding this letter please visit www.actionfraud.police.uk/FAQ. If you would like more information on how to protect yourself from fraud and cyber crime, please see the guidance at www.actionfraud.police.uk/support_for_you. You can also register on our partner website www.actionfraudalert.co.uk to receive email alerts about new and emerging crime types.

Thank you again for taking the time to report this matter.

For the ‘too long, didn’t read’ crowd – and to clarify to those who did read the above – identity theft is not classified as a crime unless a credit company has actually lost some cash. This email let me know for sure that there was going to be no police response. Someone was/is out there, running around with all they need to commit fraud in my name, and it is not a crime. There would be no effort to trace the person who attempted to pin a £10,000 loan on me. And goodness knows what else if they had actually managed to get access to my bank account.

I still feel ragey about this. I won’t rant about it here, as these posts are more about sharing what happened, what I did about it, and what I’d advise anyone else to do to protect themselves, or what to do should this ever happen to them.

Unfortunately, this isn’t the end of the story. Where we left off, I was waiting for Tuesday to arrive so that I could make the rest of the phone calls I needed to make. I had to phone in to work for this purpose (right off the back of a week off!) to try and get this lot sorted out.

I started off phoning Royal Mail, letting them know I had been a victim of identity theft, and that I wanted to make sure that none of my mail was being redirected. Thankfully, the impersonator had not thought that far ahead. No redirections were in place.

I phoned the other relevant credit agencies – Equifax and Transunion (I’d already spoken to Experian at the weekend). I let them know what had happened, and also that I had registered myself with CIFAS for protective registration. They reported that there were no other hard searches on my files.

I then decided to check my online banking to see if that pesky £10,000 had been given back to Hitachi yet. What I found instead was surprising – £9637.12 had been transferred away from my account, with only ‘Transfer’ listed in the details part.

I phoned the bank. I was able to get on to my telephone banking very easily, as my voice is now my password. I got through to a real person – who told me that they weren’t allowed to tell me anything, and that I needed to go to a bank in person with my identification. This time, I was actually able to book an appointment at the bank for later in the afternoon. This is the point in this whole story where I feel HSBC really let me down.

We’ll get in to the bank shenanigans in the next post. Thanks for reading this far!

littlewicksy

Adulting through life.

Tag: Crime

Adventures with Identity Theft – Who Needs a Pay Day anyway?

Adventures with Identity Theft – Shenanigans with HSBC

Adventures with Identity Theft – What the Police Said.