Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle / Car Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

[Rod Jones]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

byrd@optician.com just sent me another email with some useful header info that I'll provide to Action Fraud if they get back to me, I guess he hasn't tried logging into eBay today

I can't edit the original table, but here are the three extra lines, with some familiar bank branches:

Ian Pascu	20-92-63	63100316	Barclays	Wembley & Park Royal 2
Carla Chiosila	20-95-61	73420760	Barclays	Whetstone
Cristian Brian	20-95-61	73816850	Barclays	Whetstone

For those interested, the text at http://pastebin.com/Gddq2f4g can be saved as a .KML file and opened in Google Earth. This shows the locations of the branches in the list. There may be errors due to Barclays having multiple branches in certain areas but you'll get an idea of their distribution.

[alibee57]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Well I have had my letter from Barclay's.

Well well well, seems they operate a stringent customer identification verification process .............Really I think NOT.

Part of letter as follows.

When we are approached by a customer to open an account, current Money Laundering legislation requires us to operate A STRINGENT CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION PROCESS. If we do not comply with these regulations the sanctions we face are severe; ultimately, this could lead to the withdrawal of our Banking Licence. Once we receive information that suggests an account may have been opened using fraudulent documentation we will investigate and act as appropriate. Due to data protection reasons, we are unable to provide you with any information regarding our investigations into this account, or the actions we have taken. REALLY !! they refused to take the info I had on a fraudulent account.

Please accept my sincere apologies for any frustration caused by this issue and the level of service you received from our Fraud Team. As you have willingly made this payment to the account in question, this would be considered a buyer/seller dispute. I understand you have now pursued your claim for the return of the funds through the Police and we will co-operate fully with their investigations. FOR CLARITY, it is not for Barclays to determine the legitimacy of a payment beneficiary and we cannot subsequently make a judgement on one party's entitlement, or otherwise, to funds that have been WILLINGLY paid. You may wish to seek independent legal advice over how to proceed with the account holder involved. In view of the above I am unable to offer a refund or UPHOLD your complaint.

Please accept this as my final findings based on all the information I have relating to your complaint.

Once again, we are sorry for the problems you have experienced, thank you for letting us know. We take all complaints very seriously and value your feedback to help us identify where we can improve in the future.

[Rod Jones]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

"current Money Laundering legislation requires us to operate A STRINGENT CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION PROCESS"

and yet

"it is not for Barclays to determine the legitimacy of a payment beneficiary"

That's disgraceful. Have you considered going to the press? I doubt the upmarket papers such as The Guardian or far-right trash such as the Daily Mail would be interested, but it could be one for the tabloids nevertheless.

It may be right up the street of Penman and Sommerlad:-
http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/investigations/

Sun Justice appears to be more about child protection, but I could be wrong:-
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/justice/

[puddle55]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

The letter received from Barclay's is the same as the one received. Their last paragraph advised that our complaint had not been upheld and referred us to the Ombudsman.

Someone has already reported this to the Independent News paper on Friday 19th April >>>>

Barclays accused in eBay car sale scam


Hoping to snap up a bargain online, John Knight has instead become the latest victim of a sophisticated fraud.



SIMON READ


FRIDAY 19 APRIL 2013

[Rod Jones]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Here's the link to that Independent article: http://www.independent.co.uk/money/s...m-8580967.html

Be warned: there are some blame-the-victim idiots in the comments.

[Sapphire]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Stupid question time, but how come all the scammers accounts seem to be with Barclays ? Am I missing something here or is it Barclays are not doing their job properly and checking the people out when opening the accounts.

[puddle55]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Barclay's appear to be making it up as they go along. They say that as soon as they are made aware of inappropriate conduct they took steps to close the account immediately. In our case i can prove that this is not correct. From the date we advised them to the date the account was closed was exactly 3 weeks. My argument is that had they closed or froze the account the majority of our money would still have been there. I hardly think that the account holder would have gone in to make a complaint, do you ?

[Sapphire]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Absolutely no they would not, I'm just shocked that there's so much of this going on.

[Inca]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

The whole thing makes no sense to me Sapph.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

... I understand you have now pursued your claim for the return of the funds through the Police and we will co-operate fully with their investigations.

Do they suppose that they really have a choice?

Please accept this as my final findings based on all the information I have relating to your complaint.

So now you can refer the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service, who may have something to say about what appears to have been negligence by Barclays.

[CleverClogs]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Sun Justice appears to be more about child protection

Probably from guilt at having printed photos of a topless child (Sam Fox) on page 3. :tinysmile_aha_t:

[CleverClogs]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

"current Money Laundering legislation requires us to operate A STRINGENT CUSTOMER IDENTIFICATION AND VERIFICATION PROCESS"

and yet

"it is not for Barclays to determine the legitimacy of a payment beneficiary"

Stupid question time, but how come all the scammers accounts seem to be with Barclays ? Am I missing something here or is it Barclays are not doing their job properly and checking the people out when opening the accounts.

The whole thing makes no sense to me Sapph.

It could make sense, if the person opening the account(s) had presented the appropriate documentation, opened a personal account in their own name and then opened a business account in a "trading name". All we can see are the trading names belonging to the business accounts...

[Rod Jones]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

Two possible scenarios:
1) The other banks have additional vetting procedures in place which Barclays don't bother with
2) Inside job, all accounts set up by one member (or a handful of members) of staff

[CleverClogs]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

What vetting procedures are used when someone applies to open an account for the first time?

They will require photographic proof of identity (passport or driver's licence) and proof of their address - Council Tax bill, utility bill, etc. And that's about it. The bank will doubtless search various databases for anything known about the person and some banks might reject an application because there is no trace of the person anywhere.

Forging a CT or utility bill is hardly difficult but forging a passport or driver's licence is - or should be - much less easy; it is, however, not impossible and it is much easier if the forger uses a blank passport that has been stolen on its way from the printers to the passport office. Yes, this does happen; no, the blank passports are not carried in armoured lorries.

[puddle55]

Re: Ebay & Gumtree Vehicle Scam. Barclays provide Fraudsters Accounts

In our case we have managed to establish that the account was opened using a Romanian id card and a HSBC bank statement. Don't know about anyone else but to me that does not seem sufficient identification.