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A person has been left with a £18,000 debt and a crippled credit score rating after fraudsters managed to steal his id and open financial institution accounts in his identify earlier than occurring a spending spree.
Jamie Cavanagh, 37, a civil engineer from East Grinstead, West Sussex, acquired a letter in January from HSBC exhibiting he spent greater than £12,000 on a bank card regardless of having by no means banked or handled them in his life.
He then found an HSBC present account with an overdraft of £5,000 had been opened in his identify and “maxed out”.
Jamie instantly flagged the funds to HSBC as fraud and believes that somebody managed to steal his id by breaking into his letterbox and utilizing his private data to open the accounts.
Nearly all of funds have been withdrawn in £350 chunks from financial institution machines dotted throughout south London, whereas card funds have been additionally made to retailers, similar to Tesco, Sports activities Direct and several other hen retailers.
“At first I assumed anyone had despatched the improper put up, till I noticed my identify and deal with on the prime of it,” Jamie stated.
“In January my credit score rating was 930 out of 1,000, so nigh on excellent. Come February, March, it had nosedived to 620 out of 1,000.
“After I have a look at my excellent funds, it exhibits that I’m in arrears for £12,820 on a bank card account with HSBC and £5,130 for an overdraft on a present account with HSBC.
“I’ve by no means banked with HSBC in my life.”
Jamie seen the issue when he discovered a letter from HSBC in his letterbox on 21 January, though he banks with NatWest and Santander.
To his horror, the envelope contained a bank card assertion which confirmed he had been on a spending spree and now owed greater than £10,000.
“I noticed there have been reams and reams of money withdrawals on this bank card, so I used to be making an attempt to determine what had gone on,” he stated.
“I found that anyone had taken out the cardboard in my identify, managed to get themselves a credit score of £13,000.
“It confirmed that they’d managed to take out £10,000 in money at varied cashpoints throughout south London, in Catford, Croydon, Bromley, Orpington, Lewisham…”
The fraudulent purchases vary from spending just a few quid in retailers, together with Tesco, Joe & The Juice and Lazy Chef, to withdrawing lots of of kilos.
Jamie knowledgeable HSBC who stated he must go to one in all their branches with three types of identification.
He additionally referred to as Sussex Police who suggested him to file a report with Motion Fraud, the UK’s nationwide reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime, and he registered with the Credit score Business Fraud Avoidance System, a fraud prevention service, which positioned a marker in opposition to his credit score report, to flag the fraud.
He would later study that the fraudsters had additionally checked his credit standing by creating an account on ClearScore with a distinct electronic mail deal with.
In whole, they’ve spent £12,820 on the bank card and £5,130 on the debit card, cash which on paper, Jamie now owes the financial institution.
HSBC informed Jamie it might take round two weeks for it to hold out an investigation.
“Two weeks go by and I’m considering what the hell is happening right here,” he stated. ”I finally get via and so they inform me that the investigation continues to be ongoing and that it might truly take as much as seven weeks.”
Throughout this time, Jamie repeatedly acquired letters demanding repayments, threatening a default discover.
By 6 April, 14 weeks after Jamie first reported the fraud to HSBC, he nonetheless had not acquired any information. “I used to be fairly upset as you’ll be able to think about,” he stated. “Not solely that, however they hadn’t closed the credit score account.”
Once more, Jamie was informed the investigation was nonetheless ongoing.
Jamie was capable of increase an official criticism with the financial institution, which he was informed might take as much as 5 days to course of.
After posting about his ordeal on Twitter, he acquired a message from HSBC: “Good morning Jamie, thanks for reaching out to us, we would love to get this matter sorted as shortly as potential. For those who might be part of me in a non-public chat by clicking the hyperlink beneath, I can examine this additional…”
He has since been despatched one other hyperlink and requested to add his identification, however on the time of writing, the bank card has nonetheless not been blocked and Jamie’s credit score rating stays 300 factors down.
An HSBC spokesperson stated: “Thanks for bringing this matter to our consideration. We take all allegations of fraud extraordinarily critically and this case is being appeared into.”
PA
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