Legal Advice on credit card fraud

[ethanconroy101]

My name is Ethan Conroy, I am currently living in Manchester, England and I have been for the past 6 months. I am from Melbourne, Australia and I am a 28 degrees MasterCard holder.

Basically I need some advice from people as I was a victim of credit card fraud around a month ago.

Ill tell the story short so I dont bore you with the details, basically I had an eventfull evening/morning in Manchester which ended in me buying some weed of 3 guys on the street. I acted very careless this morning as I went to the ATM with one of the guys to retreive some money to buy some weed. I took some money out with my credit card and one of the guys came with me to the ATM as I retrieved the money.

I was aware of my surroundings and the situation I was in, I made sure the guy was at a distance so I could take the money out carefully and that he wouldnt see my security PIN. These guys then gave me a lift home and it all seemed fine at this point, I then went to bed and woke up in the afternoon noticing that my card was gone. I then checked my online banking and noticed that $3000 had been spent. I called up my bank and had the card cancelled straight away, and I put in a report for fraudulent transactions.

I spoke the Police and I told them exactly what had happened, and I have since spoken to my credit card company and I have told them the exact events that occured. Stupidly I told them that I was buying weed (I know this was extremely stupid as I should have spared the details). Now there are requring me to write a report and have it sent in with a statutory declaration for them to follow up on the investigation. They said over the phone that I was engaged in criminal activity, and I am concered they will use this against me and that I will now get my money back.

I need some legal advice as I am concered I have shot my self in the foot by telling my credit card company that I was buying weed. I am in the process of writing up the report and I thought I would post in here to see if anyone can give me some advice on how to word my report. I would appreciate any advice, even if you just want to laugh at me for how silly I have acted hahaa

Thank you, and I have written this very quickly as I am busy with work at the moment so I dont have a lot of time to be go into exact detail.

Cheers guys .

[R0b]

Re: Legal Advice on credit card fraud

Yes it probably was a bit stupid telling the CC company why you went to the cash machine however, whatever you withdrew was not connected with the $3,000 that was withdrawn without your authorisation.

You shouldn't need to give reasons why you went to the cash machine and just explain in the report everything that happened but omit the reasons why you went to the cash machine- just simply say you went to the cash machine to withdraw X and the following day you had your card stolen and X was withdrawn without your knowledge and without your authorisation.

Assuming your CC company is in the UK then they cannot refuse to refund you the money unless they have proof that you were in on the fraud. It is not up to them to withhold giving you the funds back because you may have been engaged in using your money for activities which are a criminal offence, thats the job of the police - unless there is suspicion of money laundering which they would need to report to the police.

No need to incriminate yourself so don't foolishly put in the report the purpose of going to the cash machine or you will just leave yourself in a much worse off position.

[ethanconroy101]

Re: Legal Advice on credit card fraud

Thank you Rob this is very helpfull. Yes in my report I am just stating that I went to the Cash machine and that my card was taken here after. My only concern is that I spoke to a guy from the fraud department on the phone and in this conversation I stated that I was interacting with the guys to buy weed and thats why I went to the cash point, straight away the representative said that I was engaged in illegal activity, and I know that they would have this conversation recorded in which I assume they could use against me.

I stumbled on the call and I wasnt prepared, I wanted to be 100 % truthfull in the events that occured as I know they would be suspiscious that I am involved in money laundering. Oh yeah by the way the credit card company are Australian, there called GE Money, Latitude Financial Services.

Thanks again for your input