check your bank statements!!!!
 

I have just found out I am the victim of mail fraud. The way it works is that your bank sends a new chequebook to you. It gets intercepted by someone in the post office system but you don't know because you didn't actually request a new chequebook (they get sent out periodically by the banks).

The thief then sits on the blank chequebook for a few months before buying mail order goods and services with the cheques. The sellers are happy to send the items because the cheques do get cleared (as long as there are funds in your account).

The only reason I realised I had been had was that I happened to check my statement this month (which I don't normally do). I asked my wife whether she had written such a large cheque and she said she had a vague memory that she had but I had already ordered a copy of the cheque from the bank.

When it arrived, she was shocked to see that the handwriting and signature was not even close to hers. She was livid and wanted to prosecute the b@stard that did this but the bank said that this is very very common and it is very rare that they catch the crooks.

Fortunately we will get the money back (about £900 in all) but they money could so easily have gone down the drain.

And before you ask, Yes I would miss a thousand pounds but I am so disorganised financially that I wouldn't know.

ta for the heads up...have you seen that Indian data/call centre employees are now selling data for £3 a pop??? Worrying....no wonder contracts I am working on at the mo are insiting on a UK only data clause

That's very common. I'm working on a project that is consolidating all the data storage (file servers, not databases yet) across EMEA. We are running into these problems with a few European countries that have laws around storage of personal data in the country of origin.

I reckon with all this fraud and uncertainty, I'm gonna move my money to the Bank of UMMAH. - Under My Mattress At Home !!!! ;)

I use my online banking and check my account every morning. I'd pick something like this up pretty quickly. Glad to hear yours is being sorted out though Chi

It's a lot easier to look at a bunch of positive numbers than a bunch of negative numbers everyday!

Who said they were positive? :lol:

You better have high ceilings................

You'd be rubbing your nose on the light shade :P :lol:

aha! It's Mister Cornerspeed, a soon to be beneficiary of my new-found wealth!

I have been up the bank this morning to chase up on non authorised withdrawls from my bank.
Firstly it was a Debit of £1400 payable to Visa, they have refunded that after I filled in the disput paperwork, all they have done is re-credit my account no explanation or even a letter saying the funds were back there. At the time I didn't cancel my Debit card as it may well have been (and still could be a) Bank error, what they did o is increase my overdraft by the same amount. Next I had two more Debits this time to AOL both on the same day and both for £15.99. So I again phoned the disputed department. This was a month ago still no paperwork all I have had since then is a £25 charge on my account for the extra overdraft and another letter saying they would be removing my overdraft facility at the end of the month.
So when I popped into my branch today all they did was arrange for my overdraft to return to my previous level and then try and get me to upgrade to a Platinum account and also take out one of their credit cards.

After 24 years with the same bank and 20 years at the same branch it looks like its time for a change. :mad:
Todays visit