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Alice
09/07/2007
Hehe that's a funny story Dean, I can just imagine the...Jeremy
08/24/2007
Nice blog mate!! Haven't had any problems like you had...jane whitley
08/23/2007
Hi Dean, This Blog is a really good idea. I think lots of...Alick mackenzie
08/23/2007
Thanks for you valuable time yesterday Dean, the film told...lauren chew
09/27/2007
hey dean, i'm really proud of you! it seems that you...
Dean joins beheard
Deans trip down memory lane
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My experience as a victim of fraud
A Hair Raising Experience!
A Film Star in Waiting
On my own
Dean's Blog
Friday, March 28, 2008, 03:21 PM
Over Christmas 2007 I had a large amount of money stolen. One evening I went into my local Nationwide branch like I do daily to withdraw cash for shopping. I asked for a mini statement to check how much was in there.
I noticed that a large sum of money was gone and I knew that something was wrong, so I asked if the cashier could find out how much had gone missing. I took the debit card to the front desk and asked if they could check with their visa department to find out what was going on.
The lady at the desk said that she would phone back after she had phoned the head office. Ten minutes later the lady from Nationwide phoned back and told me the amount was much larger than first thought. Over £500.
I was upset because I needed the money to pay bills and to basically live on. I just thought - right it’s here, you can’t change anything and just got to deal with it. Question was how was I going to deal with this and who could actually help me to overcome this?
A few days later I found out the money had been taken from a German bank in Milan Italy. I thought this is kind of insane and crazy to the max.
The bank gave me a £500 overdraft limit. I did not understand what an overdraft limit was and how to use it in the right kind of way - like learning on the job and it’s not an exercise, its real, anything can happen at any moment.
The bank and my care staff taught me to bank backwards, quite odd but easily done if you think about it. You can go under the overdraft limit but not over it.
I had to keep an eye on what I was spending daily. I got used to being in debt which is not nice but what can you do about it?
My landlord wrote asking me for payment and I explained what had happened and they were sympathetic with that week’s rent.
I was angry and upset - how could I give them what they wanted if I had no money to give them? It’s like any business, their main aim is to make money.
I felt upset that my mum had to pay the amount outstanding. I thought - it’s my problem, I will sort it out. Mum paid them what they wanted I thought thank god that part is over.
Then I had to tell the police about the theft - they gave me a crime reference for the bank to claim the money back and they took some details from me and that was that job done.
I’ve learned through this bad experience to never to use outside cash machines.
The bank explained that fraudsters sometimes put devices in the card slot of the cash machines so it was always best to use inside cash points rather then outside ones. I got all my money back within a few weeks.
This type of crime is very rare but can happen to anyone.
This is why I am telling my story so you can have an account of what it’s like to be affected by this.
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