Genealogy Forum UK

My career as an advisor for that well known banking group, Neigh Neigh gallop Gallop, has been amazing so far, small steps small progressions, so at this point in time I am only taking calls regarding Lost and Stolen credit and debit cards, and any other requests which involves cards being blocked, stopped and re-issued.

I have some useful tips to share with you all, something that everyone should do because one day you may have something go wrong and wished you took time to do the following.

FIrst of all scams and cons, Please Please Please be aware of what is attached to the front of a cash point. Next, if someone says to you "oh that ATM is not working, use this one instead", just walk away and report it to the police, this is a very easy con to fall for, the criminal is pointing you to a cashpoint that has a device fitted, they then clone the card and have noted your pin number. I had one woman who reported this from previous day, she just had a bad feeling about it so called me up to ask for advice, I looked at her account and she had it emptied of nearly £800.

DO not fall for rogue sales over the phone, there are a few scams going around where it appears to be a legitimate company offering telephone blocking service for a few pound a month and an initial set up fee, they take the initial fee and then do not deliver the service.

I am also getting an increase in people falling for the "this is your insurance company calling, we need to update a policy, we need a small fee to do this, can you give me your card details..." this is your bank calling is another one, further on that is the despicable scam where they say there is an error with card and they will send a currior around to collect it, they ask for the pin and everything, Oh dear. Or a variation is that they want to use the account in some way and convince the person to make withdrawals, with a number of reasons as to why, but its all to help the police and catch a person.

Also people still falling for the emails from banks paypal and amazon etc, saying that problem with server, account database or whatever, and ask your to enter your password etc for verification, of course its all going to the fraudsters who will empty your accounts. Amazon and Paypal are very hot on this and seems from all customer I spoke to have been brilliant in refunding money and securing accounts.


Do not panic if you loose your card or have it stolen, 90% of people calling want to check account balances after reporting a lost card, hardly anyone has any fraudulent activity on account, last week I took about 400 calls and only 3 of those had transactions they did not recognise. I also had one member of public call in to report a card she had found, It already reported lost, looked on date and it was 5 months ago, so this card had been laying somewhere for all that time.


Register for the highest level of security your bank offers, with Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland, this is a 6 digit security number for telephone banking, with this you can do almost anything at all over the phone, change of address for example. I have lost count of number of customers who urgently need a new card and are unable to go into branch, if only they bothered to register or remember that 6 digit secuirty number, we could have changed address and sent one out.

Next, keep a note of your sort codes and account numbers on your mobile phone or even written down on something, only thing people can do with a sort code and account number is pay money into your account, so contrary to popular belief it is safe to give these numbers out. Oh how I wish people would have sort code and account number, especially those Europeans with the strange names and accents and then proceed to spell it incorrectly.

I take dozens of these calls every day.

Customer : I lost my card can you stop it please?
Me: Certainly, do you have the sort code and account number for me please?
C: Sorry, I do not know that, I am at work and have no information like that.
M: Not to worry, I can find your account with your surname and postcode, can I take the spelling of your surname please.
C: Sure its Budziszewski,
(5 mins later finally get the "correct spelling"
m: So that is Bravo, Uniform, Delta, Zulu, Echo Whiskey, Sierra, Kilo, India
C: Yes that is right
[go through PostCode, then 4 mins later]
m: sorry I can not find your account, I will just read back your surname, Bravo, Uniform, Delta, Zulu, Echo ..
C: oh No No NO, its ISz next,
M: India Seirria, Zulu,
(Note, sometimes this can take quater of an hour to get right....
Finally no account is found. )
m Sorry I can not find an account with that postcode or surname, you will have to find something with your sort code and account number,
C: Oh yes I can log on to my internet banking and get this, shall I do that now
Me :

I can stop a card and call can be completed in 90 seconds if someone has a sort code and account number and just wants cards blocked and new ones sent out.

Anyway I think I have waffled on, its nearly 4am time for bed.

Night Night.

Brilliant AA

Yes indeed AndrewA especially for the older vulnerable people amongst us. Thank you.

Really helpful and interesting advice thank you RF

Thanks for that. Do you have any comments on this new tap and go system? I just got my new card sent (I only use it a few times a year when on holiday in the UK) and I wondered if lost cards result in a few small transactions using that tap thing?
Here we are way behind in this technology - chip and pin only just got going this year, for the last two years if you could not remember your pin they just shrugged and pressed a button to waive it through!

Yes Gardener, the new contactless system, a lot of positive comments from customers on this, but some worried about the secuirty aspect.

Yet again I have yet to see any fraudulent use of a contactless card, despite a large percentage of cards being reported lost are contactless.

I believe the use of CCTV cameras is a huge deterrent to criminals, why risk getting caught for making a purchase for under £20? Fraud departments have access to more tools and information and can pin point to the second when a card was used, therefore its not difficult to report this to the police who will then obtain the CCTV footage for that time from the place used.

In fact the only fraudulent activity I have seen are ATM scams using devices on front, payments made for products and services located in other countries. I can still count the number of fraudulent transactions made from a stolen card on one hand and one of those was by a customer who had a rift with partner and did not want her to spend money from his account.

The only issues customers have been reporting are from a few people travelling on public transport where the Oyster terminals are set too close to the turn style, contactless cards can now be used instead of Oyster cards, therefore as they pass through it picks up the contactless card, same thing happens returning back home and the account is then debited with the cost of the fare. I assume this is down to the card being kept in pockets or bags at same height as the terminal.

Therefore in my proffessional opinion there is not much of a risk with loosing a contactless card. Your bank should also be able to refund your losses if you prove it was fraud.

OK. I had forgotten all the cctv in the UK I look forward to using my card for newspapers and stuff like that.