It seems I have been a victim of online banking fraud. We are quick enough to criticise banks, but I would like to praise Barclays online for the excellent way they picked up on what happened to me so quickly.
I had a scam email purporting to be from Barclays last Friday which I thought was genuine, followed by a call from the bank the next day asking me to contact their fraud office urgently, which really was genuine.
This thief had accessed £840 from my online account, and is suspected to have done the same with other account holders too. I have just had a call from the bank informing me that all the money has been repaid into my account.
I have been with Barclays since I left school, taking out loans for my first car with them, as well as others, and my mortgage. I can honestly say I have not had any problems with them.
This BBC story says that online banking fraud has increased by a staggering 8,000%. Has it happened to you? Can I be confident that the police will catch the fraudsters?
Banks have to be very competitive today and consumers need to see them demonstrate their honesty and transparency. I met a Barclays executive at a blogging breakfast in London last year, but was unsuccessful in persuading him that they should start writing a blog. They could do this without disclosing confidential information. Would you welcome this?
Hope your details weren’t obtained from the Govt’s lost data
How nice to see a positive report in this age of cynicism. I too have banked with Barclays since leaving school and have always found a good service. In fact they helped me through a very difficult period s few years ago in reorganising accounts, mortgages, standing orders etc. when I had to do that.
Hi Ellee…Pleased you got your money back!! Just told Arni …he said he gets lots of emails from what seems like Natwest, but he just redirects them to Natwest to investigate. Arni said it happens alot and it is called “Phishing”.
This is a link to help identify this fraudulent emails.
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/email/phishing.mspx?ifs=0
This one might help as well.
http://www.millersmiles.co.uk/identitytheft/phishing.html
Such things make my blood run cold.
So Elle,
how did you convince the bank that it wasn’t you spent the £840.00 on new silk lingerie, perfume and all over at the spa.
Touch wood, no one has tried to access my account yet, but it is so easy when we give our bank details (and pin numbers) all over the place. It is not as fail safe as we like to think. It still works on a basis of ‘trust’ and liability. Liability hopefully for whoever access the account details fraudulently.
Q9, the bank instantly took my word for it, recognised that it was a larger transaction than I usually make and noticed similarities between it and others which were made around the same time against other accounts. Good detective work.
Well done to them for cracking down on it. Banks can be so slow.
I’ve banked with Barclays since I was 15 and I wouldn’t want to change. Their fraud office is really sharp and was on to unusual activity in my bank quicker than I was!
Hi Ellee. Of all coincidences on the day you visited my blog, I return the compliment and find that I too have been with Barclays since I left college! And that is a long time ago now. I get those scam emails but never thought to forward them to Barclays online. I will do so.
I am so glad you got your money reimbursed. Obviously we all need to be vigilant with our accounts.
Like the upmarket blog!
Mm, didn’t get my html coding quite right (went OTT and put a spanner in the works). Trying again.
I feel a bit silly now getting caught out this way, but never again. Barclays certainly has some loyal customers.
We get these things here all the time and I forward them to my banks also. I got one from eBay recently but it came to an email account not connected to eBay so it was obviously a scam too.
Ellee, so happy you got your money back immediately. A friend here had that happen to her twice and she had to go through a lot of hoops the first time to get her money back. The second time, it was much faster.
My advice to everyone regarding unexpected e-mails from banks is delete them, don’t even open them.
If your bank needs to contact you…they will write using Royal Mail complete with your name and account number.
It’ totally within the banks interests to spot fraud and refund this asap. My halifax card was recently cloned, and the bank was swift to notify me and refund the payments.
Without this swift behaviour we would soon loose confidence in them.
This thief had accessed £840 from my online account…
How, Ellee? If it was your error, then so be it. If it was an electronic erorr – all the more reason to get out of banks now.
yes I wondered how they’d accessed teh money. Frightening but glad they were caught in time.
Many banks have finally got their act together and respond well to identity fraud, however, though you got your money so soon, its not uncommon to wait 2 months or more.
Sorry you’ve been a victim of this, Ellee. But good that Barclays were on to it so quickly. I don’t think I’d read a business blog.
Hello Ellie
I hope you haven’t been helping those people in Nigeria with the few odd millions they need to transfer.
Since you raise the issue I have to say (as you now realise) that replying to unsolicited emails is a really daft thing to do. No bank will solicit you like this so lets hope your experience will warn others.
Likewise any email from Microsoft should be ignored as a scam. I confess – thats one I fell for a few years back.
But never ever give anyone your details via an email.
Ellee, I hope you wiped your hard drive. If not, they may have access to your computer.