Be Excellent To Each Other

An associate of mine has had 3.5k removed from the bank account for no seemingly apparent reason. This is a problem. Bank has been informed, as have the fraud bunch of the police. It appears to be from a company in the UK.

Recourse?

The method of removal is relevant. From the cash machine, direct debit, card payment, etc?

He'll get the money back, but it might take a while, depending on how long their investigation takes.

You can probably sue the company that charged the card for any financial hardship caused by not having 3.5K that you had before. IANAL though.

Debit card 'over the phone' apparently.

Not very helpful I know, but some arsehole helped themselves to a £1000 plasma telly from an online store using my credit card. Took me about a fortnight to get the money back after speaking to my bank's fraud department - I just basically had to sign a form stating that I most defintely was not the recipient of the aforementioned telly.

That was with a credit card though - I have no idea if it all works so well with a debit card.

Also, from experience working in retail, taking debit card payments over the phone is just about as dodgy as you can get as the retailer has seen neither the customer, nor the actual card in question. No chip & pin and no signature. I imagine your associate should have little trouble getting his money back.

This is what I thought.

So all should be well, as I'd rather like to think that it was a genuine mistake on the part of the company taking the money, rather than malice, but one can never really tell.

All i've done is to tell them to get the bank onto it, and let the bank go napalm on the involved, rather than them having to do it.

The bank won't care, it is below their "threshold" and will just write it off. (Ask Curiosity to tell his tale of woe). The police won't care as the bank won't and the person gets away with it.

The only time I have seen anything come of something like this, is when the money was used to purchase travel tickets. The person whose card had been used told the anti-terrorist squad. They cared! They were waiting at the port for the guy as he was on his way to Spain.

My tale of 'woe':

Credit card was stung for over 4 grand while I was in Ireland. It paid for roofing supplies in Essex, and a spa treatment there too. I had the very plausible excuse of having been in Ireland that weekend, and had used the card over there to buy clothes, which certainly stopped them asking many questions (as did the fact that I spent 4 grand on roofing in Essex, where I clearly do not live).

I got the money back quickly enough, and was then astonished when the credit card company gave me the address of the guy who defrauded me! It was over the phone, and I was so stunned I didn't even think to write it down. I did, however, ask them if I should call the police, or if they would be notified by Egg. They said neither, as it was below their 5 grand limit, so they didn't really care.

So, there ya go kids, crime does pay... up to five grand.

I've also been defrauded on my debit card, which was super obvious, as someone charged my account with 100 quid, then 200, then 400, then tried to get 800, but the bank refused at that point as I was out of cash.

The bank refunded all the moeny, as it was obvious fraud, but the utter b*stards said it would take about a week. I said that was fine, as these things do take time. I asked, however, that since they'd put a block on my account, could they raise my overdraft limit briefly so I could get a few quid to last me the week. They said no, because the account limit could not be increased whilst it was being investigated for fraud! Well, duh! Despite asking them several times what the hell I was supposed to do, they said it couldn't be helped. I had to borrow a load of money off my workmate for a week. Grrrr.

You've been there and shat on his doorstep though, right? Right?

I have to say though that I'm frankly fucking astonished than anyone of sound mind running a company would accept a £3.5 grand payment off someone by telephone! They seriously didn't expect that not to have a chargeback issued on it, did they?

This is what I am hoping. Apparently the police are calling them today for a 'chat'.

I was so surprised that I neglected to note down the address. Otherwise I would have done so. Or just ordered loads of junk to be delivered to him.

When I bought my car at the weekend, I was quite disappointed that my credit card company (Virgin) didn't ring up to verify that it was a legitimate transaction, as it was a few orders of magnitude higher than the typical transactions.

In one day last year I bought a £4,500 kitchen, a £10,000 car, a £6,000 bathroom, and an £800 cooker, all on the same card. I got a callback from the bank about the cooker.