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**Joanna Connolly Solicitors** · 5 August 2019, 09:50

From what you say you've reached deadlock with your complaint to Tesco, so once you've received their Final Response you can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Niddy explains the process here >

Originally posted by Never-In-Doubt View Post

You need to follow process - the bank must prove that they have the evidence as though they could pursue legal action against you, so if they can't do that they should not be adding a CIFAS. The fact you may have shared details shouldn't be a barrier either, as in that would be irresponsible - not fraud. Not if you were unaware of the crime being committed.

Your first post of call would be to contact Action Fraud and then contact CIFAS and get the data they hold and see what it says, then you go to the lender who added the marker and send them evidence of what you explained in post one above - photocopy everything, do not send originals.

You would explain to the lender who added CIFAS that you are the victim here - not the perpetrator and provide them with the crime number you'll get when you report it to Action Fraud (online bobbies).

The bank must show without reasonable doubt that they believe you are the perpetrator and have evidence to prosecute for fraud. If they do not then they cannot issue a CIFAS; in which case you'd request a final response and then contact the FOS for their intervention.

If it's ultimately decided that the bank was in the wrong then you could consider damages, but you'll need to establish the facts. I note you have already reported the crime to Action Fraud so that may help you.

Di

**jakers34** · 5 August 2019, 12:35

Originally posted by Diana Mayhew View Post

From what you say you've reached deadlock with your complaint to Tesco, so once you've received their Final Response you can refer your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Niddy explains the process here >

If it's ultimately decided that the bank was in the wrong then you could consider damages, but you'll need to establish the facts. I note you have already reported the crime to Action Fraud so that may help you.

Di

So I would like to first say Thank you so much for your advice. have today again called Tesco Bank as I still have not received the Final Response Letter, to which their adviser stated the following.."the FINAL RESPONSE LETTER was sent out on 5^th June 2019, I have still not received this whatsoever, or else it would have been sent to CIFAS or mediation.

The law states that they have to give me a final response letter detailing everything, however I have NOT received this and Tesco Bank are being extremely unhelpful and not responding to any requests whatsoever.

I therefore today called CIFAS call centre again and they gave me the CIFAS email so that I can get this to the next stage. To my utter shock the adviser also informed me that "
the crime reference number was not even logged at Tesco Banks end" I mean seriously what is wrong is wrong with this bank.?!!!

Add to that I have today also had a response from ACTION FRAUD who stated the following: "On this occasion, based on the information currently available, it has not been possible to identify a line of enquiry which a law enforcement organisation in the United Kingdom could pursue." They had the same information as Tesco Bank, So I am really confused now,,,, it's all starting to feel like a damn conspiracy....

Any help you can provide would be gratefully received

Thanks & kind regards

Jake

**Joanna Connolly Solicitors** · 5 August 2019, 13:07

If 8 weeks have passed since your complaint to Tesco then you can refer it to the FOS even if you've not received the bank's Final Response letter.

However, it may make sense to ask them to re-send it to you because the letter should set out their position.

I would also stay off the phone and do everything in writing so you have a paper trail.

Send a Subject Access Request to Tesco Bank to get the full history of what went on.

Di

**jakers34** · 12 August 2019, 19:08

HI again just an update really, So I have stayed off the phone and kept everything on paper / email, as 99 percent had been done anyway. Surprisingly or not so much, after Contacting Cifas, the FRL from Tesco Bank appeared and in it they state the following:

Dear _____________

You contacted us to let us know you're disappointed information regarding fraud you reported on your account with us been recorded with CIFAS. You closed your account on 27th May 2019 as a result.

MY Findings:

It would be correct, that in any case where fraud is reported on an account, we would share this information appropriately. This means a record wold be help with he necessary authorities such as CIFAS. This is to protect Tesco Bank, the customer, and other banks from potential risk.

While I'm sorry you're unhappy with this, I can confirm we would not be looking to update the information reported to CIFAS, as it is correct. We are also not able to offer you banking facilities going forward.

When we compensated you with £25.00 for your previous complaint, this was with regard to the service received in your call, and not to do with the fraud investigation. Not upholding complaint and FOS leaflet. etc.

After this very unclear response I filed to CIFAS for mediation today and sent TESCO BANK the following letter:

(ALL PERSONAL IDENTIFIABLE INFO REMOVED)

12/08/2019

Tesco Bank
Customer Relations
PO BOX 27010
Glasgow
G2 2DR

Reference: Ongoing Complaint: / Final Warning Before Court Action.

Dear Sir / Madam

I am writing to you to save yourselves additional costs, I am in the process of gathering evidence to go to the Banking Ombudsman and the courts, if I am not satisfied with your response to this letter. I am therefore giving you 14 calendar days to respond to this letter, before I commence action against you, I have already gone to CIFAS for mediation.

I am writing to you with regard to a CIFAS marker that you applied for on 5^th April 2019 and placed against my name on the 21^st June 2019.

I noticed fraudulent activity on my Tesco Bank Account back in May 2019 amounting to £450.00 as soon as I had realised what had happened I contacted both Tesco Bank and Action Fraud immediately.

Action Fraud said that this is a common issue and logged my crime and gave me a crime reference number. I have not included this due to a further point below.

I then rang your contact centre and had the card cancelled and raised a fraud case, to which your adviser “Stephen” told me that the money was clearly fraudulently taken and that the monies would be back in my account within 24 hours.

24 hours later and the money was still not in my account so I then rang your contact centre again. When I got through your adviser informed me that I was told the incorrect information and that the entire claim had been sent to the complex investigations department. As a result I would have to wait for a response which had no time frame to meet.

I then asked that adviser to close all my accounts with yourselves and raised a complaint against you appealing the decision made, I was very angry about the mis-information and the way I as a vulnerable customer was being treated by yourselves.

(The fact that I am vulnerable has always been made clear to you). Add to this my carer deals with all my financial dealings. I left it until 20th June 2019 and contacted your call centre again, this time I was told that the investigation had been completed and that I was being held liable for the money stolen and as a result I would not be getting a refund.

You also refused to uphold my complaint despite giving me £25.00 compensation and you have since stated in your final response letter “that this was due to the mishandled call in the first complaint, not to do with the fraud case / CIFAS marker”.
Although I appreciate that you state in your final response letter to me that this is nothing to do with either the fraud marker from CIFAS or indeed the fraud case, I still disagree with you and all of your points entirely.

You clearly state in that same letter that in any case where fraud has occurred on any bank account, that you share the information with CIFAS and other relevant authorities.

This would be explained if this was a protective marker, which for your reference is as follows:

Category 0 – Protective Registration - Recorded at the request of the individual to protect against possible impersonation attempts. This usually follows a violent crime or burglary in which personal documentation has been stolen.

I did not request this, so this is not explained by your actions whatsoever. You have applied a category 6 marker which for your reference is as follows:

Category 6 – First Party Fraud - Criminal fraud by the account holder. This encompasses false loss or theft reports, significant misuse of accounts, un-cleared effects frauds, direct debit fraud etc.

Therefore this would suggest to me that you are lying about this entirely, or just do not have the full facts of the case. I would also like to point out that within both complaints there is no mention whatsoever of the supplied crime reference number which has been supplied to you on multiple occasions.

I also note there is no mention or recording of this on your systems whatsoever, I know this because when I called the contact centre on 05/08/19 at 10:58am, and 11:04am to find out where the final response letter was, the adviser could find no reference or recording of this on any of your systems despite calling through to various departments.

I have applied for information from CIFAS and since received information from them that you have indeed registered a CIFAS mark against me for first party fraud. I then contacted both yourselves and my legal team for more advice and registered a complaint against you once again, asking for the CIFAS mark to be removed and for you to explain your actions against me.

I have since then on 10/08/2019 received a “final response letter” from yourselves stating that you are not upholding my complaint nor my fraud case. This also has no mentioning of the supplied crime number or anything to do with how you have come to this decision, conveniently this letter was sent on 5^th June 2019, but seems to have been lost in the post. This was until I contacted CIFAS to let them know you had not sent the paperwork, which was legally supposed to have been supplied within the allotted legal allowed time, you have therefore breached that rule as well.

My only hope now is to bring this to a satisfactory conclusion, with that in mind according to advice, you need to have a strong enough case to be able to pursue a legal action in the UK courts against an individual whom you are applying for the CIFAS marker against. I would like to know how this is applicable in this case.

I also would like to know how you can predict the future, as clearly the fraud case was not raised until May 2019, yet you applied to CIFAS for a CAT 6 Fraud Marker on 20^th April 2019, so would you care to explain that to me as well.

I had accepted in the past responsibility for the lost monies, however after seeking advice, I am now in a better legal understanding and therefore would now like my money back. After all I feel that you have acted well beyond your remit and have treated me, a mentally ill and registered disabled individual completely unfairly.

I maintain that I have not done anything wrong whatsoever and I will not be bullied nor intimidated by a huge corporation just because I am mentally ill and registered disabled.

I am also curious as to what the national newspapers would think about this case as well, and I am sure you do not want them and that amount of bad publicity coming your way.

As stated above this response to your “final response letter” is merely a way for you at Tesco Bank to avoid any further costs, embarrassment, bad publicity, as well as damages that will clearly result in me taking court action against you. This is because, this is clearly a violation of principles 4 and 6 of the DPA.

I will therefore not only be entitled to compensation but also damages + interest under section 13 of the DPA. I therefore hope you can see sense and bring this matter to a conclusion without the need for the courts, papers and so on to be involved.

You have 14 calendar days from the date of this letter to give me a final and satisfactory response. If this does not happen, I will commence action against you with no further notice to you whatsoever.

I will not accept any more time being taken or indeed letters saying “sorry your complaint is taking longer than usual” etc. I will only accept the following as a complete resolution and will cease all action against you as well as signing a non-disclosure agreement, if all the points below are followed:

You remove the CIFAS mark against my name, and supply me with written confirmation that this has been actioned.
You issue me with a full written apology for the distress and damage you have caused.
You give me compensation to an amount no less than £500 for the distress and damage you have caused and for my time as well as the inconvenience and costs incurred so far to myself.
You give me back the £450.00 stolen from my bank account.

I look forward to your reply

yours sincerely

FORMER TESCO BANK CUSTOMER

I have also requested a SUBJECT ACCESS request, I feel like I now need to find legal aid to get a solicitor to help me going forward.... is this something you can help with and is there anything else I am missing.

Thank you again

**Never-In-Doubt** · 17 August 2019, 09:43

Hi

I've kind of got the gist of what has gone on here, can you just clarify - CIFAS - are you sure that it is a Fraud Category marker and not a 3rd party indicator? The difference - one suggests you are fault and this is the derogatory / hurtful marker and the other is a marker advising you've been a victim of fraud, and for lenders to take caution (basically your application goes to manual refer instead of decline).

What exactly is the CIFAS marker - please clarify this.

Not had time to read the last message as it's way too long....

**jakers34** · 17 August 2019, 09:55

NO worries at all, I have checked the marker again on the CIFAS paperwork and it says the following: (Reason Filed - Fraudulent Charge Back. clearly says first party fraud. unfortunately that is as clear as it gets.

**Never-In-Doubt** · 17 August 2019, 09:57

Ok, so whats the current situation then? Have you complained to the Ombudsman yet?

**Never-In-Doubt** · 17 August 2019, 10:00

The first problem I see, and why they've likely added the CIFAS as a first party fraud is because although you say it was someone who used to live with you, but doesn't now - they done this and left all in a month? Also, granted they would get hold of the card maybe but not the PIN, how was this possible?

The thing is they cannot add a CIFAS if you've been slack, ie left your PIN lying around. Yes they can make you liable for any losses but not hold you accountable for fraud. I always argue with them that ignorance to security is not the same as fraud. It's hard work but eventually I get my way - anyway, the point here is maybe you've messed up a little in the background story.

First thing I keep thinking is, how did the person get the PIN?

**jakers34** · 17 August 2019, 10:01

HI they did not have the pin, they used the card online, that is the issue. The pin was never disclosed to anyone bar the carer who does shopping for me.

**Never-In-Doubt** · 17 August 2019, 10:09

So was it the carer or another third party? Can you elaborate - maybe email me so we can chat in private?

webmaster@all-about-debt.co.uk

Thanks

**jakers34** · 17 August 2019, 10:10

Have messaged you

**Never-In-Doubt** · 17 August 2019, 10:13

Some other questions - just answer vaguely - do not give accurate details -

1. Was it one single order (as in one purchase or various smaller ones);
2. Where was the order(s) delivered (your address / elsewhere);
3. Were you at home at either point in 1 or 2 above?
4. Do you have the details of the ordered items, ie what email address was used to purchase them? (i.e. yours or a 3rd party)?

My thinking is, assuming you were not in at the time of order / delivery then we can prove this with various technologies. If the items were delivered elsewhere and ordered using a fake email / not yours then again, we can get the retailer to provide IP information which they must keep, as all payment processing does this (I am a developer so know this).

If easier to email, feel free. Don't give too much away on this public thread.

**Never-In-Doubt** · 17 August 2019, 10:30

Hi

Right, so based on your recent PM you have very good grounds to have this removed. You'd need to do the following though -

1. Report the carer to the police; report it as theft of credit card and insist they investigate based on the fact they are a carer of vulnerable people;
2. Ensure you are given a Crime Reference - from the Police (so you'll have 2, the Action Fraud & Police ones);
3. Then send a very basic letter to CIFAS and see what they say - stick to facts and do not waffle on about Tesco's - they're irrelevant at this point - try something like below for now:

-----------------------------------------------------------

Dear CIFAS,

Ref -

I'm writing regards a Fraud marker that was applied against my name, and as the Data Controller of the information I am informing you that this is factually incorrect and to immediately delete the data from your records, being it can be viewed by others which results in Libel.

The reason for the CIFAS is ridiculous, and having tried to deal with Tesco, it is actually affecting my health to the point I am considering legal action for damages due to the anxiety and stress this whole mess has caused. I'll explain my reasoning below, and then expect you as the Data Controller to remove the entry based on my facts:

1. I am classed as a vulnerable person and have a carer. The carer has full authority to handle my finances and gives me money after paying bills;
2. The carer used the card on a gambling site. They may well have had my authority to use the card for my purchases, but certainly not to gamble and / or use for their own purposes. This permission was never granted, ergo I am at this point a vulnerable person who is a victim of fraud by my trusted carer;
3. Tesco are running me ragged and I cannot handle the stress anymore. Therefore I am relaying my concerns to you, as the Data Controller. The point here is that you are publishing derogatory information about me - regardless who provided the information, I am proving to you why it is incorrect and instead a preventative marker should be applied - not a first party fraud one!

I have reported this to the carer's employer (ENTER EMPLOYER NAME HERE) and they are no longer my carer; similarly I reported this to Action Fraud and the Crime Reference is (ENTER CRIME REF BY ACTION FRAUD).

I hereby offer 28 days to demand Tesco remove this libellous information prior to my seeking legal advice against you both, for your equal part in publishing false and inaccurate data about me.

Sign Here

**Never-In-Doubt** · 17 August 2019, 10:33

Depending how the above goes, let me know - may need to email if I miss a reply here. Then I will help with the Ombudsman - but I'd think CIFAS would actually tell Tesco to reconsider their data if you've directly proven that it was not you.

Keep me updated.

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