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Banking scam

Joined
5 Dec 2004
Messages
1,395
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Country
United Kingdom
I've not heard of this one before so I thought it may help others.
Received a text message from bank saying unusual transaction on my account for about £500 from major store. Said if I did not make it press N. At time I thought thank god they, the bank are on the ball.
Thought no more about it until about 2 hours later.
Received a call from bank saying follow up to to the text message.
Just to make sure I asked for proof it was the bank, he knew the account number sort code and final clincher a password from when I set up account 50 years ago .
He then proceeded to ask me various questions about my debit card which I refused to answer and asked me to create a number to get into account. By this time I suspected that he was not from the bank and I terminated the call.
I rang the fraud dept at bank to see if they had contacted me. No they hadn't.
On checking the account, over £3.5 grand in three payments had disappeared from my account. Bank couldn't explain how but said they will look into it
Later said they had managed to stop one of £800 but rest had gone.
It sounded like this was an new scam as bank said they would let all banks know about this immediately.
Finally I asked bank where I stood with regards to the remaining £2.7k
Good news they said I would be refunded in full within 48 hours and sure enough they did.
I don't know why so quick and don't really care, but it makes me think there was a problem at their end.
Anyway to all don't respond to a text message and more importantly to the follow up call.
 
I've not heard of this one before so I thought it may help others.
Received a text message from bank saying unusual transaction on my account for about £500 from major store. Said if I did not make it press N. At time I thought thank god they, the bank are on the ball.
Thought no more about it until about 2 hours later.
Received a call from bank saying follow up to to the text message.
Just to make sure I asked for proof it was the bank, he knew the account number sort code and final clincher a password from when I set up account 50 years ago .
He then proceeded to ask me various questions about my debit card which I refused to answer and asked me to create a number to get into account. By this time I suspected that he was not from the bank and I terminated the call.
I rang the fraud dept at bank to see if they had contacted me. No they hadn't.
On checking the account, over £3.5 grand in three payments had disappeared from my account. Bank couldn't explain how but said they will look into it
Later said they had managed to stop one of £800 but rest had gone.
It sounded like this was an new scam as bank said they would let all banks know about this immediately.
Finally I asked bank where I stood with regards to the remaining £2.7k
Good news they said I would be refunded in full within 48 hours and sure enough they did.
I don't know why so quick and don't really care, but it makes me think there was a problem at their end.
Anyway to all don't respond to a text message and more importantly to the follow up call.
Bastards.
 
I am trying to work out how the scam worked. You didn't seem to give them any information that would actually assist them.
 
I don't know and when I asked bank he didn't seem to know.
That's probably why I got the refund so quickly
 
I don't know and when I asked bank he didn't seem to know.
That's probably why I got the refund so quickly

Probably. There seem to be different rules for push payments and unauthorized payments.

My debit card had attempted unauthorized transactions a few weeks ago, but luckily the bank caught them. I almost ignored a legitimate text from my bank because I thought it was a scam!

Did your fraud payments go out as debit card transactions or bank transfers?
 
Probably. There seem to be different rules for push payments and unauthorized payments.

My debit card had attempted unauthorized transactions a few weeks ago, but luckily the bank caught them. I almost ignored a legitimate text from my bank because I thought it was a scam!

Did your fraud payments go out as debit card transactions or bank transfers?

When my wife's credit card got stolen I didn't bother reporting it because whoever nicked it was spending less than she did.
 
I am trying to work out how the scam worked. You didn't seem to give them any information that would actually assist them.

If they had enough information already, the first you would know about it was when your money was gone.

They had some, but not enough, information. Hence the call, to fill in the blanks.


I suspect that bits of information are scattered across the Internet and dark Web, which are harvested by the scum scammers.

IIRC, something like a third of NK's gdp comes from cyber crime :eek:
 
Probably. There seem to be different rules for push payments and unauthorized payments.

My debit card had attempted unauthorized transactions a few weeks ago, but luckily the bank caught them. I almost ignored a legitimate text from my bank because I thought it was a scam!

Did your fraud payments go out as debit card transactions or bank transfers?
Neither, that's the strange thing. All it said was obviously the amount and a prefix of, INV32
 
Just to make sure I asked for proof it was the bank, he knew the account number sort code and final clincher a password from when I set up account 50 years ago.
I find this bit quite interesting, and I'm maybe wrong in my thinking. Is it not the case that they are never supposed to offer or ask for any info re passwords? Security questions yes, but passwords no. The scammer maybe slipped up a bit there.
 
I find this bit quite interesting, and I'm maybe wrong in my thinking. Is it not the case that they are never supposed to offer or ask for any info re passwords? Security questions yes, but passwords no. The scammer maybe slipped up a bit there.
It was me that asked for proof that they were from the bank. The name they gave me was not a password but a security question when the account was first set up.
 
Should have qualified this by saying that account has now been closed

Your text message sounds identical to the one I got from HSBC, which turned out to be legitimate.

What happened when you replied N?

I thought mine was a scam and was too worried to reply. So, I rang the fraud line instead.
 
Last edited:
It was me that asked for proof that they were from the bank. The name they gave me was not a password but a security question when the account was first set up.
The security question is designed so that they ask the question, and your reply is the correct recorded answer, from when you first chose the security question.
e.g., security question chosen in opening the account: What is the name of your first pet? Correct answer: Fido
 
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