After my unsuccessful evening, I waited until just after nine to contact the relevant people. Started by emailing checkmyfile.co.uk to find out if there is an alternative way to obtain my credit reports sooner than the three days, I was informed it would take.
The number given to me by Alliance & Leicester last night rings then cuts off an the number given to me by Santander is to a complaints line which cuts you off if you choose option 4. I thought I would give it a try and redialed it and chose option 4 again. This time I speak to someone who informs me that I need to speak to the fraud department but then transfers me to the switchboard. This was starting to look a little more promising, maybe I can make some headway.
The switchboard transfers my call to what she told me was the fraud department. After ringing for about 2 minutes the phone cuts off. Ah, maybe not getting somewhere now. Whilst on the phone, I get the number for lost and stolen credit cards on the website and decide I will try that instead.
The computer system appears to have crashed and so several minutes are spent with tapping on the other end of the phone before I can continue with my story. Apparently the credit card was not issued through Alliance & Leicester but by the Abbey, another Santander company. Obviously I was asked some 'security' questions and after informing our rude customer representative that some of my answers my be wrong since I did not make the application, I get told that I must have applied for the credit card since it would have only been issued after a check of some sort of identity such as passports, birth certificates and driving licenses. The chap on the other line was really starting to wind me up, he was rude.
Eventually, he relents and transfers me to account closures where the credit card is cancelled. Fortunately for them, no expenditure had been incurred. Of course, not, I was lucky enough to have had it delivered with the PIN number to my house! I insist on talking to fraud dept and am transferred to wrong fraud department. Apparently this is something fraud and I need application fraud.
No transfer possible this time so I got an number which I ring. No, the number is for Abbey banking application fraud so I get another number to ring. Finally, I manage to get to the Santander credit card fraud line. I am told that because of data protection - I cannot obtain any other information made in the application. Yes, it is in my name but since I have now told them that I did not apply for the account, the identity of the identity thief needs to be protected. Additionally it does appear that the card was indeed issued by Alliance & Leicester and may have been done online.
By the time I am finished with the banks, I am frustrated and confused. My wife then suggests that it may be that the Alliance & Leicester 'change of address' letter maybe for an account and that may be the target of the payday site loan. There are hundreds of these sites that do payday loans. A call to on e of them let me discover that most of them are just portals for a few big loan companies. This one mentioned paydayuk which rang a bell with me so I phoned them.
I was very surprised at the professionalism and politeness of paydayuk customer support. It certainly put the big outfits I had up to now been dealing with to shame. Of course, I was asked the obligatory security questions, but the identity thief was on the ball and I passed the checks. All the details on file where correct except the mobile phone number. My wife immediately checks the number and makes an identification. Thankfully, it is not an international fraud outfit! The loan is destined for the Alliance & Leicester account but paydayuk does refuse to give me the bank details citing Data Protection and mumbling about stopping the transaction. I am assured that their fraud department will call me and release the account information later in the day.
This is where paydayuk fell down. One of their staff rings me up at work to 'check' on my recent application, I inform her that I have no idea what is is talking about and yes can she text me the details. Obviously they text the number on the application which does not happen to be mine! Then they released £350.00. Not very clever.
I contemplated waiting for the account details from paydayuk before approaching Alliance & Leicester armed with account details. I searched http://www.alliance-leicester.co.uk/customer-service/contact-us.aspx?contactusfooter for a number I could use but it just appears that if you have an enquiry other than the options presented, you have no option but to get yourself into a branch. Pathetic!
My instinct takes over and I decide to go to an Alliance & Leicester branch. God knows what havoc could be being wrecked in my name and hopefully I could get details of any other loans, cards etc and get them stopped as well.
To be fair, the lady who helped me in the small Wolverhampton branch was excellent. Finally Alliance and Leicester's fraud department got into the act. The questions they asked seem to suggest that they were more willing to believe I was pulling a fast one than to determine if in fact I was a victim. My passport, my utility bill and the 'change of address' letter was faxed to the fraud department, too late to save the nearly £1.5k overdraft facility they offered on opening the account. Apparently, this overheard, some in foreign currency! It appears that paydayuk's money had not got to the account yet if in fact it was destined for this account. The account was stopped and I left Alliance and Leicester with a business card and some names in case I need to follow up.
On retruning home, checkmyfile's response for immediate access to my paid for report was the usual banking crap. After all I had now paid for the reports so why bother doing something special but force me to follow procedure. I cannot belive that a company that claims to care about your credit rating are not willing or have procedures for emergency access to credit reports. If you think about it, if my thief had obtained other cards etc, he is soon to know he is rambled and will attempt to gain as much as possible before all the accounts are closed!
I tried a third time to get a report from creditexpert.co.uk. I am told that I exist on the system already but when I try and login, it fails. It then becomes apparent that they will send something in the post which then I have to use to verify my account and this can take up to 5 days! A call to customer support is as useful as a fart in the wind. The representative finds my old account and archives it. Tells me to try again even though I inform her I have three times. It is obvious they do not see the account until it is verified - lack of training? If it was not on her crib sheet, there was nothing she could do including transferring me to a senior member of staff. I gave up.
By this time, I am having to use the 3G network to update twitter. Virgin Media's broadband in Wolverhampton is problematic ever since they had the noise issue in my area. Try getting that through to a help desk member of staff! The iPhone's interface is such as pain - I so hate the spell checking - and helps my mood not one bit at this point.
I am so disgusted that two companies that sell their services as a means to battle identity fraud are actually not very good at doing just that. One of these services, I subscribed to for a year which ended some 6 or 8 months ago. The problem with that is that you have to make an effort to get your report. One of these agencies now have an alert service that will alert you when there is activity on your account. I will have to sign up to that because my friend may continue to try it on until he is caught.
More disturbingly is the fact that all the companies I dealt with, not one, accessed my credit ratings via their systems which they do have in place to determine what other activity is happening and maybe warn other banks and other financial institutions of the presence of fraudulent activity. Why is that? This is scary stuff and it is no wonder that financial fraud is so prevalent and easy, nobody is working together to get this stuff stopped. Is there vested interests in letting this activity go on? Does insurance make some of these companies lazy in putting in place systems that adequately handle fraud.
Paydateuk's system failed. The warning signs were obvious. I get them and they should have picked that up straight away. They are so lucky I had the sense to contact them back. Alliance and Leicester's 'change of address' letter, which all banks now do, alerted me of a suspicious activity but the lack of an email address and/or telephone number showed a lack of a system to handle such events.
So at the end of day 2, I am waiting on fraud departments at Santander - next week, Alliance & Leicester on Saturday and paydayuk maybe today. I am seriously not holding my breath. I will keep you updated via twitter over the next few days.
Also at the end of day 2, I know who has done this to me and it is quite unbelievable.
Make what you will of these events but I certainly have very little confidence in the financial system to be comfortable that they are indeed safeguarding their customer's interests.
[First published on my NotTheNews blog on specified date]