ME Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 (edited) My business account was the subject of fraud this week. Luckily Mrs ME does our business accounts and she flagged up the fraud to the Bank Manager before my business account was relieved of two very large amounts. The bank has investigated and it stemmed from a cheque that we issued to Korea being intercepted. From there the fraudster used the information on it to call my bank and change my telephone banking passwords and order two CHAPs payments. The bank manager confirmed the forged signature that they used on the CHAPs forms was very close to mine too. :look: LUCKILY when the telephone banking details were changed, the bank issued a letter and Mrs ME questioned it with the bank.(I don't use telephone banking) Obviously we caught this in time, but it was a shocking revelation. I can't begin to imagine how tricky it would have been to get the money back from the bank if the fraudster had been successful. We have now put extra security in place and will not be paying any suppliers by cheque in the future. Let this serve as a warning and reminder to everyone to be careful with your personal and business account information. If you get any letters from the bank saying that passwords or user names for any services have been changed then speak to your bank. (even if you don't use the service that the letter was about) Edited July 28, 2011 by ME Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 I'd be suspicious of whoever you paid the cheque to, intercepting a cheque is hellishly difficult. Funnily enough I received an e-mail from my bank today saying we will be able to make online international payments shortly which would be far easier for you than cheques. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon R Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 If the cheque went by Royal Mail - I am not entirely surprised. Far from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gixer1 Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 This is what I was thinking, what's hard about opening an envelope Alex? even business mail eg DHL is taken from time to time... Regards, Gixer Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon R Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Some people actually join Royal Mail for the sole purpose of stealing mail from the sorting offices. Anyone who wishes to dispute that is clearly not in possession of any facts at all. Some of them join using their own identity, whilst many chose an alias. Royal Mail do not appear to be on top of this problem. Cheques, credit cards, birthday cards - all fair game for the night shift. I seem to recall that a number of banks by-passed Royal Mail for a secure delivery in London. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
death from below Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Some people actually join Royal Mail for the sole purpose of stealing mail from the sorting offices. Anyone who wishes to dispute that is clearly not in possession of any facts at all. Some of them join using their own identity, whilst many chose an alias. Royal Mail do not appear to be on top of this problem. Cheques, credit cards, birthday cards - all fair game for the night shift. I seem to recall that a number of banks by-passed Royal Mail for a secure delivery in London. I dispute that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon R Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 You would be wrong. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gixer1 Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 You would be wrong. I would agree Gordon, there was a dispatches episode years ago on it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon R Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 I am not having a pop at Royal Mail employees en bloc. Many are hardworking, honest people - salt of the earth. However, some people join to steal - end of chat. They spend their time looking for credit cards, money in birthday cards, cheque books, cheques. That is not a question of opinion. Sadly, I have had to deal with a fair number of them. Can Royal Mail - hand on heart - say they know the true identity of all their employees? They don't - haven't a clue. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sha Bu Le Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 (edited) My son believes a postman can feel the 10 micron difference in thickness when a tenner is in a birthday card. Me I'm a bit more down to earth, the scroats are shoving greeting card type envelopes through the xray machine maybe on nights, maybe all the time. They'll see the metal strip??? Edit.....afterthought Edited July 28, 2011 by Sha Bu Le Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thunderbird Posted July 28, 2011 Report Share Posted July 28, 2011 Always bad apples wherever you go, even in the police I'm sure. I have had two notable pieces of post 'go missing' over the years both of which clearly contained something interesting. One was a driving licence from the DVLA (which was then used to open an illegal bank account into which stolen company cheques were paid, the guy got caught but as far as I am aware got let off scott free which has always amazed me. I think it's a question of luck, like getting burgled really. I know you can take precautions but there is only so much you can do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon R Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2019891/Postman-stole-thousands-mail-fund-luxury-lifestyle-Leicester.html One of the very low level thieves. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
leeds chimp Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 but how did they access the telephone banking with just the bank details??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 This is what I was thinking, what's hard about opening an envelope Alex? even business mail eg DHL is taken from time to time... Regards, Gixer its a case of how much mail do you have to open before finding a cheque, in this case as a supplier they would have a fair bit of information about your company to give clues as to how best to hack the account Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bouncer Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 i had £275 taken out of my bank account my mrs went to pay the bills and she noticed money hadd gone so i rang the bank.they told me it was going to some foreign country (cant remembe where.they said when i drew £10 out at asda cahpoint at 8.01pm they took the money in the same minute as i drew mine out.the bank got it back because it hadn,t gone into the other bank account,there is a lot of people round here getting ripped off so be careful of cashpoints. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ME Posted July 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 but how did they access the telephone banking with just the bank details??? They called up pretended to be me and said that they had lost their login details. Part of the security questions asked by the bank was to name a recent transaction - i.e. the cheque that was intercepted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al4x Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 They called up pretended to be me and said that they had lost their login details. Part of the security questions asked by the bank was to name a recent transaction - i.e. the cheque that was intercepted. but it wouldn't be a recent transaction if the cheque hadn't been cashed it wouldn't show on the account Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyb Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 Assume they recorded the cheque details before sending it on it's way? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ME Posted July 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 Assume they recorded the cheque details before sending it on it's way? Indeed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon R Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/article-14338864-5m-mail-theft-ring-smashed.do http://www.peterboroughtoday.co.uk/news/local_2_17092/court_mail_thefts_stopped_after_postie_caught_1_2667724 Their own staff claim it is rife. http://warband.wordpress.com/category/fraud/page/2/ http://nnet-server.com/server/common/conpost11.htm This man had already been sacked under one name and re-appeared under another. http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/1007380-postal-thief-let-off-for-post-traumatic-stress/ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article775129.ece These are a few examples from trivia to serious money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Poacher Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 If the cheque went by Royal Mail - I am not entirely surprised. Far from it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ME Posted July 29, 2011 Author Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 The bank have confirmed that the same Nigerian gang have tried to access the account again today. The Police are involved and all telephone banking is stopped against our bank accounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bagsy Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 The bank have confirmed that the same Nigerian gang have tried to access the account again today. The Police are involved and all telephone banking is stopped against our bank accounts. There's a surprise - a Nigerian gang involved Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
reddan Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 There's a surprise - a Nigerian gang involved Lead by this guy maybe. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gordon R Posted July 29, 2011 Report Share Posted July 29, 2011 Many of the fraudsters involved in credit card and bank fraud are from Nigeria. I could not give a stuff what colour anyone is or where they come from, but many Nigerians are very adept at this type of fraud. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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