I've only had one fraudulent payment I've not been able to trace back to my own doing. I set up an account to receive funds for my friends estate when she died a while back.
Account details were given only to those who owed the estate money, that was a couple of pension funds, her employer (NHS) and the Nationwide as she had many savings accounts.
I also used that account to pay her credit card, the funeral directors and a company called Phillips & Cohen who were acting on behalf of companies she had loans with (3 of them). That's it.
I had a debit card which I never activated and the account was used solely for one purpose. When I had paid out her sole beneficiary (her mother) I left £10 in the account as I didn't want to close it for 12 months after her death. There were no direct debits or standing orders set up and only I had access to the account.
Shortly before I was due to close it, I went on-line to see if it could be closed without me having to sit on the phone for hours & noticed that Amazon had taken £8.99 that morning. Checked my Amazon account i case I'd bought something & used the wrong account but no, I hadn't, so phoned the bank to report a fraudulent transaction.
The thing is I knew who had the account details as I had to keep meticulous records, they were all reputable companies and even with account number & sort code, I don't believe someone could just dip in to the account & buy goods (as appeared to happen), and it had been untouched for 4 months.
Stil to this day don't know how this happened but at least the bank frose & repaid the £8.99
Account details were given only to those who owed the estate money, that was a couple of pension funds, her employer (NHS) and the Nationwide as she had many savings accounts.
I also used that account to pay her credit card, the funeral directors and a company called Phillips & Cohen who were acting on behalf of companies she had loans with (3 of them). That's it.
I had a debit card which I never activated and the account was used solely for one purpose. When I had paid out her sole beneficiary (her mother) I left £10 in the account as I didn't want to close it for 12 months after her death. There were no direct debits or standing orders set up and only I had access to the account.
Shortly before I was due to close it, I went on-line to see if it could be closed without me having to sit on the phone for hours & noticed that Amazon had taken £8.99 that morning. Checked my Amazon account i case I'd bought something & used the wrong account but no, I hadn't, so phoned the bank to report a fraudulent transaction.
The thing is I knew who had the account details as I had to keep meticulous records, they were all reputable companies and even with account number & sort code, I don't believe someone could just dip in to the account & buy goods (as appeared to happen), and it had been untouched for 4 months.
Stil to this day don't know how this happened but at least the bank frose & repaid the £8.99
