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The Lloyds' Incident
This is a real story about an incident which took place at the cash machine of Lloyds bank recently. It is also reported here to sensitize people to be more cautious while using cash points anywhere where maximum security is needed because fraudsters are watching your every move to steal from you or to harm you. Sometimes we may ask ourselves this question; who or what to trust anymore, people or technology?
Writen by : Iswarlall Balooram
Chapter 1: The Incidence
It was Thursday the 23rd of April 2020, me and my lovely neighbour Ms. Anne decided to go for a shopping just to get some foodstuff as we were in lockdown. In the afternoon at about 2 pm, we took the W4 ferry lane bus to Wood green. My neighbour jumped off to go get some cash at her Barclays bank while I continued to the next bus stop near Lloyds bank on the highway Wood green. I walked to the cash machine and as the left hand side ATM was free I went in and put my card in, pressed my pin code and was prompted to take cash the amount I needed as I pressed the required amount as I only needed £10. The machine swallowed my card and no money or card came out of the machine. As I was trying to figure out what had happened. Someone behind me, a black guy in some sort of a black jacket told me that one of his friends had the same problem and therefore I need to try my pins again so that my card may come out. I thought may be it’s a good idea so I tried couple of times but my card did not come out nor any money came out of the cash machine. I started panicking as the bank was closed early at 2 pm and it was about 2:20 pm when this happened. I was just in front of the machine and could not imagine if someone was even able to look at my pin codes. This black guy asked me to wait there he told me that if my card came out of the machine, someone else could use it. So I waited and waited but nothing happened. I tried calling the bank as someone else behind me gave me the bank's number, which I tried twice but the call got cut because my phone was not topped up. After these guys were gone I stayed there and was still waiting by the machine when I saw other people coming and using the same machine without any problem. I was confused so I thought as I got internet banking app on my mobile phone, so let me check my account. As I logged into my account I got a shock of my life. I knew from previously checking my account balance I had £320.67 in my bank account and after what had just happen, my account was cleared up and became £0.67. As I have my neighbour's cell phone number and as she was not far away, I called her at 2:39 pm to explain what had just happened. She asked me to calm down as she was on her way to come see me from Barclays bank which was not far away. After calling her, I tried calling the bank through the internet banking App at 2:41pm. I managed to get hold of a lady through the App, her name was Catherine. I tried explaining to her what had just happened to me and even told her that I don’t know for sure if I became a fraud victim or something else had happened to the machine swallowing my card in. I could not hear her very clearly as I was near to the main road and with the noise of the passing vehicles and also this lady did not have a very clear voice. I spoke with her for about 26 minutes. She told me that she is registering this call as an ATM Dispute complaint, which I did not know exactly what that meant at that time. She did not tell me to go report it as a fraud or anything else or even to the police station and she also told me that after a small investigation the bank was going to refund this money into my account by midnight same day.
She told me if my account was not credited I should phone a different number that she gave me and that I must go to the bank and explain this matter to one of the staffs the next day when the bank is open and also to wait five days for me to get a new debit card. So my neighbour took me to Sainsbury’s supermarket just after that and bought me some necessary food items and then we went home.
In the evening eventually while checking my internet banking App, I found my account was being credited with the amount that was there previously that is £ 320.
I was happy to receive my money back as I thought there must have been a problem with the bank itself. I recalled the lady telling me that my card was being used somewhere in Turnpike lane while I was standing near the cash machine there so I explained to the lady that I came directly from home to the bank to get out some cash for food and that I have never been anywhere to Turnpike lane before that which was about 15 minutes walk from where I was and that I am also not working and that was the only hard earned money I had to buy some foodstuffs and my bills. I could not understand how could my card was being used somewhere else when I was standing by the machine there and waiting for it to come out.
Chapter 2: The Glympse of Happiness
Well after checking my account balance, I was glad to see my money back into my account, My neighbour Ms Anne advised me to shift my money to a different account if I had one and try changing my password. I realised that I had another account which was a Monzo account and had not used it for some times. So I transferred £300 into that account same day. The next day I went to the bank and spoke to one Indian staff at the information desk and He checked my account and said to me that it could be a fraud as I told him that my card was inside one of the ATM.
I continued to live a normal life and was using the money in both accounts to buy foods and pay my bills and I was posted a new debit card from Lloyds after 5 working days. My life became a nightmare again after receiving that one message I received from Lloyds bank on the 4th of May after about 11 days saying that after their investigation the bank found their machine to be working fine and that I must return the money credited into my account.
I like had another shock because I was not expecting this as I was already using the money to buy food stuffs and to pay up my bills. I felt really disappointed the way the bank was taking this on me because I felt like since I had this account last year December I have been putting money and doing transactions every single week and that I have been a regular customer so far. My neighbour Ms Anne has been so helpful, so gentle and so kind to me that I feel that I will always be indebted to her as she tried contacting the bank for me the same day on the 4th of May. We waited very long times on the phone something like more that an hour to be able to speak to someone from the Fraud Department and from the ATM Dispute Team. They told us that an investigation will be carried out to find out what exactly happened and that we will receive a feedback as soon as they can as it may take longer because of Covid 19.
She spoke to Madison and Tiffany between 2 to 3:15 pm. She also spoke to the ATM Dispute Team Mr. Kieran and he also informed us that my money were all withdrawn from my account at another non Lloyds ATM at 2:35 pm on the 23rd April. My neighbour wrote a complaint letter on my behalf and sent this letter to the Lloyds complaint department after receiving a reference number 1xxxxxx2. She was there with me after this event on that day and she could see what I was going through. We printed a copy of the complaint letter and went to the Tottenham Police Station the same day and there we met James who asked me to fill up a form and gave me a leaflet about Action Fraud. He asked me to register an online complaint and said he needed the complaint reference number after registering on the Action Fraud system. We came home then I tried to register myself on the Action Fraud site and it took me a very long time to figure out how to register my complaint online as their phone number would not accept a human interaction about this type of complaint and had to create a profile and login and to write everything that happened to me in a limited space and words counts. So after I finished posting my complaint on Action Fraud site, I did receive a reference number NFRC20xxxxxxxx64. The next day I found an email which I received from the Action Fraud Team saying that they have looked into my report and that this cannot be classified as a police recorded crime. The next day 5 May, I received another email from the CMS Metropolitan Police saying that an investigator has looked into the case Crime Reference number 28xxx94/20 and that they are sorry and it is unlikely that it be possible to identify those responsible and that the case has been closed.
Chapter 3: The Queries
Then the next day I received a letter in my mail box reference CP225/BD saying that i must make sure to have the £320 in my account by the 14 May if not I will be paying some penalties and for any query I should call the number in the letter. I phoned the bank on Monday 11th May from the number they gave me to contact on the letter and waited more than an hour to speak to someone who said he can’t help me that I should contact another department and he gave me another number. I contacted this number and after long hours of waiting I finally had Ms Anjie on the line from Unsecured Simple Service Team. After talking to her and waiting as she was kind enough and as I was looking for a solution to my problem at last she said to me she also could not help me. She transferred me to the Fraud Team and there I spoke to Sophie who confirmed that my complaint is being looked after and that she also cannot help me. I told her that I was concerned and I do not want to have any problem with the bank, I was asking the bank to help me establish a payment plan because now I don’t have the amount of money and if in case they reject my plight I may have to pay back this amount to the bank and I am not working now and do not have any income at the moment with this Covid situation.
She asked me to speak to the Customer Service for my payment plan instead and gave me another number to call. I called this number the next day and spoke to Angela and she told me the same thing that she cannot help me but instead I will have to wait for the letter that I will receive after further investigation and this could take months.
Chapter 3: The waiting
As I do not have that amount of money left, I did not put the money on my account on the 14 of May. The next day on the 15 of May, I received a text message from Lloyds saying that I should have the money into my account for payment before 2:30 pm.
My good neighbour, Ms Anne, God bless her, had previously helped me with £ 75 so that I be able to keep on surviving in this troubled time that I am going through. This time also she left her own personal job and spent a lot of time on the phone trying to find someone to help me with this situation as I still did not know what to do. We decided to go to the Wood green Lloyds bank together and try to speak to the manager there asking for some more information to find out what could have happened. As we were inside the bank waiting there also for about an hour we finally were able to speak to the manager Ms Alpa Patel. She was very helpful and told us that while i may have been distracted at the cash point, the thief could have got hold of my card and went and cashed my money from a nearby cash point at Turnpike lane. The worst thing we learnt from the manager is that there is no evidence that the cash machine swallowed my card because any card left in the machine is being destroyed and there is no record kept for that. We managed to get hold of someone at the Fraud team from the bank phone and spoke to James who told us that my card was being used at the Turnpike lane Post Office cash point and that the investigation may take around 2 months.
My neighbour and I, took a walk to the Post office after the bank meeting and we found and asked the manager on site there about the CCTV recording and if she knows for how long does the Post Office keep their recordings. She told us that it is only kept for 10 days which comes as a bad news for us because any evidence of a fraudster using my card has already been destroyed.
Now I am here and still waiting for my letter to come after the investigation, so I would know which next step to take in my fight against this bad situation. I feel I was the victim of this theft or fraud or whatever you may call it. I have been honest in writing this report and God knows I am telling the truth and not lying.
Signed
Iswarlall Balooram
Writen by : Iswarlall Balooram
Chapter 1: The Incidence
It was Thursday the 23rd of April 2020, me and my lovely neighbour Ms. Anne decided to go for a shopping just to get some foodstuff as we were in lockdown. In the afternoon at about 2 pm, we took the W4 ferry lane bus to Wood green. My neighbour jumped off to go get some cash at her Barclays bank while I continued to the next bus stop near Lloyds bank on the highway Wood green. I walked to the cash machine and as the left hand side ATM was free I went in and put my card in, pressed my pin code and was prompted to take cash the amount I needed as I pressed the required amount as I only needed £10. The machine swallowed my card and no money or card came out of the machine. As I was trying to figure out what had happened. Someone behind me, a black guy in some sort of a black jacket told me that one of his friends had the same problem and therefore I need to try my pins again so that my card may come out. I thought may be it’s a good idea so I tried couple of times but my card did not come out nor any money came out of the cash machine. I started panicking as the bank was closed early at 2 pm and it was about 2:20 pm when this happened. I was just in front of the machine and could not imagine if someone was even able to look at my pin codes. This black guy asked me to wait there he told me that if my card came out of the machine, someone else could use it. So I waited and waited but nothing happened. I tried calling the bank as someone else behind me gave me the bank's number, which I tried twice but the call got cut because my phone was not topped up. After these guys were gone I stayed there and was still waiting by the machine when I saw other people coming and using the same machine without any problem. I was confused so I thought as I got internet banking app on my mobile phone, so let me check my account. As I logged into my account I got a shock of my life. I knew from previously checking my account balance I had £320.67 in my bank account and after what had just happen, my account was cleared up and became £0.67. As I have my neighbour's cell phone number and as she was not far away, I called her at 2:39 pm to explain what had just happened. She asked me to calm down as she was on her way to come see me from Barclays bank which was not far away. After calling her, I tried calling the bank through the internet banking App at 2:41pm. I managed to get hold of a lady through the App, her name was Catherine. I tried explaining to her what had just happened to me and even told her that I don’t know for sure if I became a fraud victim or something else had happened to the machine swallowing my card in. I could not hear her very clearly as I was near to the main road and with the noise of the passing vehicles and also this lady did not have a very clear voice. I spoke with her for about 26 minutes. She told me that she is registering this call as an ATM Dispute complaint, which I did not know exactly what that meant at that time. She did not tell me to go report it as a fraud or anything else or even to the police station and she also told me that after a small investigation the bank was going to refund this money into my account by midnight same day.
She told me if my account was not credited I should phone a different number that she gave me and that I must go to the bank and explain this matter to one of the staffs the next day when the bank is open and also to wait five days for me to get a new debit card. So my neighbour took me to Sainsbury’s supermarket just after that and bought me some necessary food items and then we went home.
In the evening eventually while checking my internet banking App, I found my account was being credited with the amount that was there previously that is £ 320.
I was happy to receive my money back as I thought there must have been a problem with the bank itself. I recalled the lady telling me that my card was being used somewhere in Turnpike lane while I was standing near the cash machine there so I explained to the lady that I came directly from home to the bank to get out some cash for food and that I have never been anywhere to Turnpike lane before that which was about 15 minutes walk from where I was and that I am also not working and that was the only hard earned money I had to buy some foodstuffs and my bills. I could not understand how could my card was being used somewhere else when I was standing by the machine there and waiting for it to come out.
Chapter 2: The Glympse of Happiness
Well after checking my account balance, I was glad to see my money back into my account, My neighbour Ms Anne advised me to shift my money to a different account if I had one and try changing my password. I realised that I had another account which was a Monzo account and had not used it for some times. So I transferred £300 into that account same day. The next day I went to the bank and spoke to one Indian staff at the information desk and He checked my account and said to me that it could be a fraud as I told him that my card was inside one of the ATM.
I continued to live a normal life and was using the money in both accounts to buy foods and pay my bills and I was posted a new debit card from Lloyds after 5 working days. My life became a nightmare again after receiving that one message I received from Lloyds bank on the 4th of May after about 11 days saying that after their investigation the bank found their machine to be working fine and that I must return the money credited into my account.
I like had another shock because I was not expecting this as I was already using the money to buy food stuffs and to pay up my bills. I felt really disappointed the way the bank was taking this on me because I felt like since I had this account last year December I have been putting money and doing transactions every single week and that I have been a regular customer so far. My neighbour Ms Anne has been so helpful, so gentle and so kind to me that I feel that I will always be indebted to her as she tried contacting the bank for me the same day on the 4th of May. We waited very long times on the phone something like more that an hour to be able to speak to someone from the Fraud Department and from the ATM Dispute Team. They told us that an investigation will be carried out to find out what exactly happened and that we will receive a feedback as soon as they can as it may take longer because of Covid 19.
She spoke to Madison and Tiffany between 2 to 3:15 pm. She also spoke to the ATM Dispute Team Mr. Kieran and he also informed us that my money were all withdrawn from my account at another non Lloyds ATM at 2:35 pm on the 23rd April. My neighbour wrote a complaint letter on my behalf and sent this letter to the Lloyds complaint department after receiving a reference number 1xxxxxx2. She was there with me after this event on that day and she could see what I was going through. We printed a copy of the complaint letter and went to the Tottenham Police Station the same day and there we met James who asked me to fill up a form and gave me a leaflet about Action Fraud. He asked me to register an online complaint and said he needed the complaint reference number after registering on the Action Fraud system. We came home then I tried to register myself on the Action Fraud site and it took me a very long time to figure out how to register my complaint online as their phone number would not accept a human interaction about this type of complaint and had to create a profile and login and to write everything that happened to me in a limited space and words counts. So after I finished posting my complaint on Action Fraud site, I did receive a reference number NFRC20xxxxxxxx64. The next day I found an email which I received from the Action Fraud Team saying that they have looked into my report and that this cannot be classified as a police recorded crime. The next day 5 May, I received another email from the CMS Metropolitan Police saying that an investigator has looked into the case Crime Reference number 28xxx94/20 and that they are sorry and it is unlikely that it be possible to identify those responsible and that the case has been closed.
Chapter 3: The Queries
Then the next day I received a letter in my mail box reference CP225/BD saying that i must make sure to have the £320 in my account by the 14 May if not I will be paying some penalties and for any query I should call the number in the letter. I phoned the bank on Monday 11th May from the number they gave me to contact on the letter and waited more than an hour to speak to someone who said he can’t help me that I should contact another department and he gave me another number. I contacted this number and after long hours of waiting I finally had Ms Anjie on the line from Unsecured Simple Service Team. After talking to her and waiting as she was kind enough and as I was looking for a solution to my problem at last she said to me she also could not help me. She transferred me to the Fraud Team and there I spoke to Sophie who confirmed that my complaint is being looked after and that she also cannot help me. I told her that I was concerned and I do not want to have any problem with the bank, I was asking the bank to help me establish a payment plan because now I don’t have the amount of money and if in case they reject my plight I may have to pay back this amount to the bank and I am not working now and do not have any income at the moment with this Covid situation.
She asked me to speak to the Customer Service for my payment plan instead and gave me another number to call. I called this number the next day and spoke to Angela and she told me the same thing that she cannot help me but instead I will have to wait for the letter that I will receive after further investigation and this could take months.
Chapter 3: The waiting
As I do not have that amount of money left, I did not put the money on my account on the 14 of May. The next day on the 15 of May, I received a text message from Lloyds saying that I should have the money into my account for payment before 2:30 pm.
My good neighbour, Ms Anne, God bless her, had previously helped me with £ 75 so that I be able to keep on surviving in this troubled time that I am going through. This time also she left her own personal job and spent a lot of time on the phone trying to find someone to help me with this situation as I still did not know what to do. We decided to go to the Wood green Lloyds bank together and try to speak to the manager there asking for some more information to find out what could have happened. As we were inside the bank waiting there also for about an hour we finally were able to speak to the manager Ms Alpa Patel. She was very helpful and told us that while i may have been distracted at the cash point, the thief could have got hold of my card and went and cashed my money from a nearby cash point at Turnpike lane. The worst thing we learnt from the manager is that there is no evidence that the cash machine swallowed my card because any card left in the machine is being destroyed and there is no record kept for that. We managed to get hold of someone at the Fraud team from the bank phone and spoke to James who told us that my card was being used at the Turnpike lane Post Office cash point and that the investigation may take around 2 months.
My neighbour and I, took a walk to the Post office after the bank meeting and we found and asked the manager on site there about the CCTV recording and if she knows for how long does the Post Office keep their recordings. She told us that it is only kept for 10 days which comes as a bad news for us because any evidence of a fraudster using my card has already been destroyed.
Now I am here and still waiting for my letter to come after the investigation, so I would know which next step to take in my fight against this bad situation. I feel I was the victim of this theft or fraud or whatever you may call it. I have been honest in writing this report and God knows I am telling the truth and not lying.
Signed
Iswarlall Balooram
