Fraud on Debit Card.

[LizB99]

Has anyone had a similar experience to this?
My mother lost her purse and debit card, and reported it asap to the bank. During that time some low life had emptied her account of �300 via a cash machine, and then spent a further �250 via signing.
She has completed all the necessary paperwork with the bank, and reported it to the police. She never had her pin number written down, told it to anyone etc, and was not aware of using it with one of these 'scanning devices' attached to a machine.
Anyway, almost a month has now passed, and shes getting no further forward getting any of the money back.
Her account is overdrawn (which the bank very kindly gave approval too!) But no one seems to be able to say when or if she'll get anything back.

[panhandle]

Liz,
This happened to me a few years ago. However, the
Bank immediately credited my account with the amount that had been fraudulently removed whilst they carried out their own investigation.
If your mother can identify where the card was used and then prove that she was not present at that location on that date & time then it will help her case. Also ask for copies of
the EFTPOS slips that were signed in order to compare the signatures, obviously they should differ.

Good luck

[LizB99]

Many thanks panhandle. Unfortunately, she was at home, and alone, having gone to the shop where she lost the purse earlier that day. However, I'd not thought about asking for copies of the signature slips, so thank you.

[ursula62]

Someone cloned my card at a cashpoint machine. I was at home eating my dinner when they spent �400 plus paying off their own credit card bills and I didn't find out about it until I next went to the cashpoint and noticed my balance was too low. I went to the bank and they said I had to go to the police, so I went to the police, spent 2 hours reporting it then went back to the bank and reported it all over again with the police crime number this time. The bank refunded my money within a week, but I had to have my cashpoint card stopped and reissued which took 2 weeks. The police won't tell me who it was, but they say they got the t0sser.

[Carol Anne]

If it's correct that �300 was stolen via a cash machine, then the thief had to have your mother's PIN number. There is no other the machine would pay out. Someone got to know this number, one way or another. If I were her I'd be putting my thinking cap on and try to figure out just who would have had the opportunity to see her use it, and then later to steal her purse. These supermarket keypads are a joke as far as privacy is concerned. The bank will almost certainly not refund the money stolen via the machine, but she might get the other �250 back with a bit of luck.

[stevie21]

If your mother simply lost her purse then how did someone else know which PIN to use with it in the cash machine?
If it was the case that someone stole it from her and picked her pocket then fair enough, I'd maybe assume that they also went to the trouble of watching her type the PIN into a shop/ATM so that they could get cash but what you outline above just doesn't fit.

Maybe this is what's causing the delay and the bank are a little suspicious that she has told someone else the PIN, had it written down or done something else similarly negligent. If she's not done enough to protect the PIN then she's liable for the losses. If not, she should get the refund. If there's a little suspicion of negligence, this maybe also explains why there's no money refunded pending the investigation : only afterwards.

If all is above board and she's taken all reasonable precautions then things should never take this long and she should have the money by now.
Phone the bank and ask for some progress - it should be their fraud department that's dealing with it.