Unauthorised withdrawal

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

A £36 unauthorised withdrawing was made from my TSB account, then immediately refunded by GoFundMe. How does that happen? Is it worth contacting TSB to ask them?

[Chris Green]

I think it most likely that it was an internal error by someone in the bank who almost immediately realised the error and reversed it.

[Davey]

"Nothing ventured, Nothing gained". I recently saw a withdrawal I didn't recognise on my HSBC account, and tried online to ask what it was. I went round and round, frequently coming back to the same point where I started, and never found any way to ask. What used to be easy Chat was now only available via an application on a smartphone, which I don't have, so I eventually found a working message portal and sent a long angry note. A few days alter, I received a text message on my 'phone, saying that HSBC had received my message, and would be contacting me to discuss the points I raised. That's a week ago, and I am still waiting.... And I have identified the transaction in question, but I'll only tell them that when they contact me.

[Jeff Layman]

Why would anyone in the bank be doing a transfer from the OP's account to GoFundMe, and who authorised it? A BACS payment out is under the account holder's control. It's done at a time specified by them (as an immediate payment), or as a standing order (if it's a DD payee, all bets are off!), nobody in the bank should be involved.

It is *essential* to contact TSB to find out what happened. What if it wasn't £36, but £3600? What if the OP's account went into the red and he missed, for example a DD payment which might lead to other problems?

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Jeff Layman explained :

I rang TSB and lucky I did. They carried out some checks and they said my card had been compromised, which Visa had spotted as not a transaction by me and reversed the transaction. TSB are cancelling my old card, sending a new one out.

Thanks..

[alan_m]

Have you ever made a donation to a charity or crowd funding?

About a year ago I sponsored someone (for charity) via their facebook page or the facebook account designed for these types of payment. I also used my paypal account for the payment.

Later when checking my Paypal account and there appeared to be an entry for automatically approving future payments to that money collecting organisation. There may not have been anything sinister about that entry in my Paypal account but I thought it wise to to cancel that entry.

[Jeff Layman]

That's a good outcome. In these days of scams, etc, it's always worth checking with the bank to find out what's going on. Hopefully, the increased use of 2FA should make such payments less of an issue.

[Martin Brown]

They do sometimes do stupid things. I have had the same transaction paid into my current account twice in one night. They inadvertently ran the same transaction tape twice (back in the old days)!

The typical hostile probe is usually a minor donation to a charity which if it succeeds is then followed by an empty the account out sequence of transactions. The OP should talk to TSB fraud prevention ASAP.

I'd also do a stiff antivirus scan with the resident AV program and one with eg a fresh copy of Malware bytes in stealth chameleon mode.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Martin Brown expressed precisely :

Nothing of concern found by Malware.

[Harry Bloomfield Esq]

Harry Bloomfield Esq brought next idea :

The replacement card arrived this morning and it is almost blank - it just says TSB, VISA on the front, with a wireless symbol. No account number, no sort code - those are all in tiny characters on the back.

[Andy Burns]

I've had one replacement like that recently (with the raised dots and notch for the blind) but more recently I've had another card with all the embossed lettering, and no features for the blind ...

[Tim Lamb]

Hmm. I managed to jam a card upside down in a car park machine. The embossed lettering prevented finger tip extraction and I had to borrow some pliers from my hairdressers. Don't ask what they used them for!

[Davey]

On my last evening in Mexico City, I went to the local bank ATM to get enough cash for the final day. I got my money, but then there was the sound of gnashing metal teeth, and my card disappeared inside the machine. The folks in the bank just shrugged their shoulders and denied any responsibility, saying the machine was not theirs. My first job on returning home was to report to my bank.