Tony Hetherington is Financial Mail on Sunday’s ace investigator, fighting readers corners, revealing the truth that lies behind closed doors and winning victories for those who have been left out-of-pocket. Find out how to contact him below.
G.H. writes: I received a new bank card from TSB, but I have never banked with them.
I called TSB’s fraud line, but the person who answered wanted to know about a fraudulent transaction and refused to accept that the new account itself was the fraud. Eventually she transferred me to a dead extension.
Tony Hetherington replies: TSB was fortunate, since you pressed on with a second attempt to stop the fraudulent account being used. Your second call to the bank worked, as the man who answered understood right away what had happened and told you: ‘We have had quite a few of these recently!’
He blocked the account, but could not – or would not – tell you how it had been opened or what proof of identity had been produced by whoever used your name. And when you suggested that if there had been a rash of fake account applications, there must be something wrong with TSB’s system for approving new accounts, he could not answer.
So is there a serious problem within TSB?
Cutting corners?:TSB is Spanish owned but has its headquarters in Edinburgh and follows UK rules
The bank is Spanish owned but has its headquarters in Edinburgh and follows UK rules. It seems, though, that it does not actually demand any proof of identity before it allows a new account to be opened.
TSB told me: ‘We follow industry standard processes to verify a customer opening an account – and continue to enhance our controls, which has helped reduce the number of false account openings overall.’
But, of course, since the fraudster used your personal details to apply for the account, it was really your details that TSB was verifying, so it is not surprising that you were accepted as a customer.
With this in mind, I asked the bank again to say what proof of identity it requested. TSB refused to answer, telling me: ‘We can’t share any further detail on our account opening processes and verification.’
What is clear, though, is that the account was successfully opened. So could a fraudster make use of such an account, perhaps for money laundering, before the person named as the account holder realises something is wrong and alerts TSB?
The bank would only say: ‘This was prevented, due to our anti-impersonation controls which were applied and helped prevent the card being fraudulently used.’
But its anti-impersonation controls did not stop the account from being created by an impostor, nor did they stop the debit card from being posted to you. If you had not made your phone calls, how long would it have taken the bank to realise it had been tricked?
TSB has acknowledged the worrying position you were in because of your profession, and it has offered you £250 for the inconvenience.
It takes about 15 minutes to apply online for a TSB account, with no identification needed.
You just need someone else’s personal details and you can then, for example, walk into a branch and deposit cheques, or you might transfer in funds from another account, just as a money launderer would. You could then withdraw the now laundered cash before TSB knew anything was wrong.
It all seems too easy, with the bank in danger of closing the branch door after the crook has already bolted.
Vanishing act: The Financial Conduct Authority is considering whether to issue its own warning against Al-Tabbaa & Hackett Capital
Vanished without trace
An unauthorised savings firm has vanished with no explanation to customers.
I warned two weeks ago that Al-Tabbaa & Hackett Capital was falsely claiming to be one of the largest savings organisations in the UK. It changed this to refer instead to the UAE, and now its website has disappeared.
The firm’s Trustpilot page displayed reviews from happy savers, some of whom claimed to have been dealing with it for years – even though the website was just two months old.
Trustpilot has now taken down every review. The fake reviews were matched by bogus messages left on the Daily Mail’s financial website, thisismoney.co.uk, as soon as it published my warning. And the company itself said my report was ‘an enthralling work of fiction’. Thank you to the many readers who pointed out the fakes.
The Financial Conduct Authority is considering whether to issue its own warning against Al-Tabbaa & Hackett Capital.
If you believe you are the victim of financial wrongdoing, write to Tony Hetherington at Financial Mail, 9 Derry Street, London W8 5HY or email tony.hetherington@mailonsunday.co.uk. Because of the high volume of enquiries, personal replies cannot be given. Please send only copies of original documents, which we regret cannot be returned.
#warn #TSB #account #fraud #TONY #HETHERINGTON #investigates
