Advice about cutting up bank cards after fraud.

[Sue Ellen]

Not sure if this has been discussed previously on AAM and it may not apply in Ireland but would just like to hear from our preferably knowledgable banker's views on this.

I watched a programme on BBC1 one morning recently where two women had suffered fraud on their bank accounts. Their PIN numbers were used so Barclays bank refused to meet their claims and one suffered £16,000 loss and the other £1,800.

The bank advised them to immediately cut up their cards which in the long term did not help their investigation because it was claimed that the transactions are stored on the card. This gentleman recommended not cutting up your card Professor Ross Anderson, Cambridge University if fraud has taken place on your bank card with Chip and PIN and its this point that I'm left wondering about.

Any views from any of our bank people who may have worked in this area?

 

[Jim2007]

The bank advised them to immediately cut up their cards which in the long term did not help their investigation because it was claimed that the transactions are stored on the card. This gentleman recommended not cutting up your card Professor Ross Anderson, Cambridge University if fraud has taken place on your bank card with Chip and PIN and its this point that I'm left wondering about.

Well first off I would not pay much attention to Ross Anderson as he is not the most of reliable of sources! If you have got position of the card, while the thief is making use of account, then there is no way that the transactions can appear on your chip!

Furthermore the only reason the banks recommend you cut up the cards is to ensure that you don't per chance start trying to use them again and set off all kinds of security flags. It is not going to hinder or help the investigation if you destroy the card, since if you have the card, then there is not going to be anything on it relating to the thief.

 

[Sue Ellen]

It is not going to hinder or help the investigation if you destroy the card, since if you have the card, then there is not going to be anything on it relating to the thief.

One of the points they made on the programme was that it would prove whether it was the original or a cloned card that was used. Some of the transactions took place in a totally different part of the country. When the account holder produced a note from her employer confirming her whereabouts at the time of the transaction the bank dismissed this.

A copy of the CCTV that was available from Barclays was sent to the police and lost. No copy of the footage was kept by Barclays but they did confirm that they were introducing new guidelines regarding this.

From a customer service point of view Barclays did not do themselves any favours.