A ride on an open line

1


     This is the story of a fraud.  I know it is true because it happened to me.  I should not have been taken in, because I used to be an investigative reporter once, nosing around to discover how criminals were getting away with it.

      There was a call from Harrods story in Knightsbridge one afternoon.   Someone claiming to be my nephew had tried to use what was a clone of my bank card to buy lingerie.  They had challenged him and were sending for the police.   I had been having having a quiet nap at the time, not as awake as I should have been.  "I don't have a nephew," I said, and checked my wallet.  "My bank card is here all right, though."   The man at Harrods said it would be as well to tell the bank security people.    There was a number on the back of the card, so I phoned it, and a helpful man answered.  He took it all very seriously, asking a lot of knowledgeable questions about my account and finally saying it was very important that I should send in all my cards and bank statement.   They would send a messenger.     I phoned back Harrods - the girl in the department did not seem to know anything, but a man rang back and said yes, it was all in hand, and the one claiming to be my nephew had been arrested and taken to the nearest police station.   I did not check the police station, which I should have done, because the messenger had arrived in a respectable looking black saloon, saying he had been asked to collect something, though he wasn't quite sure where he was supposed to be going with them.
        I was still on the phone to the banking official when my 26-year old grandson happened to drop in.   "This sounds like a fraud," he said.   ~"No, no, it's all in hand," I said, waving him away.   The man was still talking, so I gave him the phone and said " you talk to him then."   He asked why he wanted the bank cards and the man said to do an analysation, and my grandson said there is no such word and handed back the phone.  I made an excuse to the man, saying I wanted to ring my daughter, then rang the Yorkshire Bank and cancelled the cards - but not before they had managed to draw £500 on the credit card.   And they still had my bank statement, with lots of information about direct debit payments.
         I went to see the bank three days after Christmas Day - the phone call had happened on the day before Christmas Eve, and asked them to close my account and to open a new one.
          But most of the worst was yet to come.   The account was frozen, but the bank refused to transfer all the old account to the new one as I had asked.   This meant ahat the direct debit payments were not met.   But because the bank did not warn me about this, I assumed that all the bills would be met as before.   Not so.   First, without warning, Virgin cut off the phone and only after hours of calls and explanations was it switched on again.   Would it be electricity or gas next?  No, they did not seem to be due for payment, luckily, nor Camden who would have sent in the bailiffs if their council tax bill was not paid.   Then came a letter from the bank, 10 days after the account had been closed, saying that a cheque could not be honoured because there was no money in the account.   Would I let them know what was to be done about this they asked, taking a full A4 page to deal with it.   They did not seem to have noticed that the account had been closed or as I had discovered later, frozen..   The funds had been transferred to the new account, and standing orders set up by the bank, but that was all.
      Having discovered that several other people had been through this mental torture and expensive physical fatigue through all the phoning, I think we should be warned about these alleged calls from Harrods and other well-known stores.   I'd be grateful if the police could get on to these chaps and stop them.  
      How do they manage to do it?  By keeping an open phone.  When you think you are ringing your bank, their line is still open to you and they answer it.   The same with the alleged "Harrods" caller.  
     Oh, and Virgin have cut off my phone again, even though I paid the bill.  Someone there didn't get the message.  Maybe I should tell Richard Branson, he's a bit off-message himself sometimes.

ends