debit card fraud € 10,000 withdrawn from current account

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breffni

Registered User
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hi,

my wife receive a letter on a Monday from AIB bank saying that, someone was trying to access her account, we immediately checked her internet banking and saw some unusual transactions in US dollars,we immediately cancelled her card and saw the balance,up to 4000 was withdrawn from her account.
we immediately went to garda station and lodged a complaint.
next morning when we went to the bank we figured out that upto 10000 was missing from her account, she was totally in a shock.

the bank gave a complaint form and said if the fraud is proved she would get her money back into her account, and it would take upto 60 days for the whole process.

she only used her card 4 times in last 2 years
1.pay her o2 bill 2. tescos 3. pay board gais bill
4.in a restaurant

she is surprised why the bank did not cancel her card immediately when the bank found out some unusual transactions were happening on her account rather sending a letter by post on a Thursday evening which we only received on monday. gave the person whole weekend to withdraw money.

she is completely depressed all our hard earned money, which we were saving for a purpose is gone, and don't know if its going to comeback(young family with a two year old)

please suggest if anybody has faced a similar situation and what is the best way to handle the whole thing
 
I have a relative who received a phonecall from AIB c. 2 years ago re some shenanigans on his Visa account. If they could use the phone then why not now!!!!?
 
yes, they mentioned about it, they rang her but unfortunately her contact number details were not updated, that was the only fault from our side.
 
There was €20 taken from my current account a few years ago and I did have to report it.

A girl who use to work in the bank told me that the banks are insured against this but they need to make sure that you are not trying to defraud them.

Once you prove that you were not neglectful with your details you should get all your money back.
 
becky said:
There was €20 taken from my current account a few years ago and I did have to report it.

A girl who use to work in the bank told me that the banks are insured against this but they need to make sure that you are not trying to defraud them.

Once you prove that you were not neglectful with your details you should get all your money back.
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Thanks a lot for the info.
the bank assured that all the money would be back once it would be proved, and we were not negligent anywhere, as i mentioned she hardly used her card as was always in safe place where nobody had access to the card.

just wondering how can any body get her pin number which she only used twice in last two years, and she exactly knows where it was used,

I guess it could only be done by the bank employees, who might sell all the clients information
 
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breffni said:
Thanks a lot for the info.
the bank assured that all the money would be back once it would be proved, and we were not negligent anywhere, as i mentioned she hardly used her card as was always in safe place where nobody had access to the card.

just wondering how can any body get her pin number which she only used twice in last two years, and she exactly knows where it was used,

I guess it could only be done by the bank employees, who might sell all the clients information
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There is also the possibilty that your wife had a PIN which was easy to access, eg 0000, 9999, her date of birth or something like that,

Most bank staff would not have any access to your wife's pin

I accept that your wife may have only used her PIN a couple of times but unless you are very careful they can be easily spotted by people looking over your shoulder at an ATM or by a shop assisitant

Another simple lesson for the future, don't leave €10k in a current account, unless you transferred funds over to pay for something as a once off. It's dead money and you'd get a much better rate of return in a savings account
 
Mpsox said:
There is also the possibilty that your wife had a PIN which was easy to access, eg 0000, 9999, her date of birth or something like that,

Most bank staff would not have any access to your wife's pin

I accept that your wife may have only used her PIN a couple of times but unless you are very careful they can be easily spotted by people looking over your shoulder at an ATM or by a shop assisitant

Another simple lesson for the future, don't leave €10k in a current account, unless you transferred funds over to pay for something as a once off. It's dead money and you'd get a much better rate of return in a savings account
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I take your advice but the pin was very unique no sequence of 4 numbers it was not easy to find even. The pin number was never even told to me she was that careful. Yes 10K in current account is a lumpsum amount but we have moved our regular saver money 8K to current account so that we can open an online Fixed account for €10k it was all a co-incidence I should say that money on advice from bank official being moved to current account to open fixed account and the fraud it was shocking and after 10days of the incidence she still feel so depressed. Everything was going on well and we were advised to do that by the professional at the bank and never expected this to happen.
 
Mpsox said:
There is also the possibilty that your wife had a PIN which was easy to access, eg 0000, 9999, her date of birth or something like that
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There's no reason to suspect her PIN or card were involved at all. They could be card-not-present transactions or duplicated magstripe cards. Since the transactions were in US dollars, the chip wouldn't be used even if they hard the card.
 
I had about €200 taken out of my account last year. AIB were on the phone to me within 12 hours of it happening and I had the money back in my account within a few days, even before I had the form sent back.

They may take a bit longer in your circumstances, due to the large sum of money involved, but the money will probably still be refunded.

My bank (AIB at the time) never told me where it happened, but based on a newspaper report that came out about 2 weeks after the fraud, it seems that crime gangs paid staff in a high street shop to copy card details and take note of PIN numbers as they were entered. The article didn't mention the shop name (so therefore I won't), but I was able to make a supposition based on places I'd used the card around the time the skimming would have happened.
 
breffni said:
it seems that crime gangs paid staff in a high street shop to copy card details and take note of PIN numbers as they were entered. The article didn't mention the shop name (so therefore I won't), but I was able to make a supposition based on places I'd used the card around the time the skimming would have happened.
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in that case, my wife exactly knows where the card was used,since 2 years. so it would be easy to figure out where the fraud might have happened[/quote]
 
Do you mean by this that she had the PIN written down somewhere??

it means the pin number was not easy to guess
 
This is what happened to me two months ago.
On Saturday we went shopping at local butcher and nowhere else that day. That night I checked online my BOI account ( i do this usually three times a week). I see extra 3 transactions of 30 euros each. Phoned emergency BOI number stating I have suspicious activity on my account. They say - nothing to do - just get in the branch on Monday. Sunday again I see new 3 transactions of 30 euros. Went to branch on Monday- they immediately canceled my Laser card and filled form for new one. On Wednesday they see these 6 transactions as O2 top-up (they needed to wait two working days for computer system to process weekend data). That means someone used my Laser card number without need of PIN. On Wednesday they finally filled form for internal Fraud team and asked me to report to Gardai and to phone back to bank with name of Gardai, which I did. Amount of 180 euros was returned in two weeks by the bank.

What is crucial:

  • Bank should canceled my Laser on Saturday - they didn't and they have reported their employee at emergency department for missing this task.
  • Bank do not automatically cancel suspicious activity for current account. They wait for you to report it. For credit card they monitor everything and are quick on informing you and canceling and invoking new credit card.
  • Bank also said that no one from Fraud team will ever contact me about this, so I will never know who and how they got info on my account details. That way I do not know how to protect my account in future. After all, how difficult is to check O2 and to get details on transaction and IP address of computer used.
  • Continue in future to check online your transactions. I suspect in my case they wanted to hid money by taking 30 euros each time at different time of the day. So if I did not check my account online, when I see my bank statement next time, I would briefly look at it and definitively skip 30 euro transactions. Plus they are counting on the fact that people shop a lot on Saturdays and Sundays so no one will see suspicious activity.
Bank will definitely return your wife's money - it is an insured account.
 
After all, how difficult is to check O2 and to get details on transaction and IP address of computer used.
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Data Protection act prevents o2 from disclosing information that may identity the fraudsters. Mad I know.
 
Using stolen card details to buy phone credit online in multiple transactions seems to be a common scam.
 
They need a court order to disclose.

Tbh, the banks won't report this incident to the Gardaí. Prepaid phone, fake details to register, phone only used for 1 or 2 days and then dumped. Very hard to nail anyone.
 
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