I am writing is in the hope that someone who has had a similar experience may be able to help us.
We run a small family owned retail store in the UK.
In February we received a call from a man who wanted to buy a high quantity of produce from us.
Taking orders over the phone was a normal occurrence for us as
our handheld streamline device allows us to do so if the customer giving the relevant security details
ie: number in the address and postcode, D.O.B etc.
We had no reason to suspect this was a fraudulent transaction as the card details went through successfully
and the 'customer' picked up his order later that day.
We heard nothing more about this case until
the beginning of June when we received a letter from First Trust bank stating that there had been a query with the transaction back in February
and that First Trust would be removing the money from our account.
There was nothing in the letter stating that the transaction that had taken place in February had been fraudulent.
It wasn't until we rang First Trust that an advisor told us the card that had been used was stolen and that we were responsible,
since then we have been to the police,
our local bank branch and
we have contacted the customer help line several times and
after being transferred numerous times we have gotten nowhere
as we are being told it is nothing to do with the bank
and that we are somehow responsible.
If anyone can advise us from a similar experience they have had with the banks we would be extremely grateful.
We do not believe it is right that the banks can take that money from our account (nearly £1000)
plus charge us a fee of £75 to do so,
we also do not believe we can be liable if all security was passed by us over the phone
and the details came back as verified to allow us to carry out a transaction
over the phone via the banks streamline device.
If anyone knows of any agencies that we can seek advise from on this matter it may also be very helpful
Thank you for taking the time to read this
Jonny
