Be Excellent To Each Other

Just got automated phonecall from Natwest about fraud wanting me to call 0845 356 0020, anyone else had this before? Or is this a scam?

Google is a bit rubbish on the subject, I've found answers saying both things.

Phone Natwest on their normal published number from one of your statements and ask them if they have sent out an automated call to you asking you to call that number. Ask them if that number actually belongs to Natwest.

saynoto0845 list it as;


Unverified Numbers Database
Company Name 0870 / 0871 0844 / 0845 01 / 02 / 03 Freephone Other Information
NatWest Fraud Department 0845 356 0020 0131 339 7609
NatWest Fraud Department 0845 356 0020 0131 339 7609

Do that. I got a similar one from the Halifax, and wasn't trusting it.

Unfortunately, the regular call centre were useless and weren't aware of what their fraud department's number or procedure was. So, Look for the fraud department number if you can.

In my case they just wanted to validate a couple of large purchases that the computer had flagged as unusual.

It's a real number, natwest are cheapskate bastards*. Call the telephone banking number and ask to be put though to the fraud department, your card/direct debits may be blocked if you don't.

My mum had this problem when she was in Australia, she got back to the message and ignored it, cards got blocked she goes nuts and they tell her that there has been "suspicious foreign activity" on her card...


*it's a special kind of company that considers Indian labour too expensive.

Just got off the phone, it was genuine.

Want to know what set it off?

Donating £25 to the British Red Cross. Does Natwest think that lowly of me that I wouldn't donate to charity

I get these from Barclays all the time, as their fraud detection is often way too sensitive.

*Puts on geek glasses*

I think you'll find that, ahem, technically their fraud detection is not specific enough.

A couple of year ago I had my credit card blocked ............ for purchasing two tracks on iTunes.

Yeah, Barclays are a nightmare. My card once got blocked because I used to to top up my Oyster card. Not so bad, as I hadn't done it for a while, until you consider that my Barclaycard was also my Oyster card

Oh my. That's certainly something.

I had my regular O2 money transfer trigger their fraud system, then my card shut down. I didn't know until I couldn't pay a restaurant bill. I was not best pleased.

That's good though. Someone cloned my dad's card and tried to buy a £3,000 TV, but they bought sone tracks off iTunes first to test it worked.

I went to the bank to draw out money to buy a car once, the cashier asked why I wanted the money (some money laundering regulation or something as it was fair amount of cash) so I told them.
Bought the car.
Bought a tax disk for the car using my debit card.
Tried to buy insurance... transaction was stopped due to it being an "irregular" activity!

I don't understand how the fraud detection works either... a purchase abroad will trigger it 99% of the time it seems, but a transaction for £30 of fuel in Plymouth or Maidstone or somewhere else miles away in England wouldn't. I'm far more likely to be on holiday in New York or wherever than driving a car I don't own at the opposite end of the country, but this doesn't factor into it it seems.

Regardless, this was all just a sneaky way for Jon.J to brag about giving money to charity so I guess it doesn't matter

I've used my card abroad plenty of times without informing the bank beforehand, and never had it blocked. But then I've had it trigger at the Apple store and Ikea, two places I've bought many items from. Fucksake.

I used to work at a bank and I'm still none the wiser how the fraud detection works. My experience tells me its totally random.

What gets me about fraud detection is the randomness. When I was in the US last summer, my card was blocked in Publix (more or less a Florida Sainsbury's), but the second time I shopped there. Similarly, my card was blocked in a restaurant, but only the third time I used it there. It's frankly rather on the bonkers side. That said, my bank has once managed to block a fraudulent payment (someone somehow got hold of my details and tried to make a two-grand payment on some web hosting, of all things). The inconvenience of a block wouldn't bother me so much, but my bank refuses to contact me via any means when the card's been blocked (by a text message or mobile call), stating that "you should phone us when it's not working and we'll unlock it". Yeah, that'd work great in a checkout queue, since it's typically a 20-minute process.

The one time I've actually been the victim of fraud, the transaction wasn't blocked and the bank happily let my money be used. What was purchased, you might ask? Plane tickets to the sum of ~£1,500 in somebody else's name.

Yeah, apparently it's quite common for fradscunts to try a few little transactions first, as people are less likely to notice them.

And Barclays are a bunch of twats. I'm dead set on never banking with them, as they, alone among all companies in the world, immediately spammed me on my 18th birthday. I'd had absolutely no dealing with them previously, so fuck them really.

I suspect I know what's happened - red cross have had to have websites and scams (phishing e-mails etc) shut down after the Japan disaster. Main culprit seems to be an organisation called "Moneybookers".

I have a mate at work that is a bit of a sucker for insurance. He bought some sort of Barclaycard identity \fraud protection.
First thing they did was call him up each time he made small purchases from Amazon and Ebuyer.

Then he didn’t hear from them for a while, one morning he gets an invoice for a flight to France, then the next day another one for a flight to Brazil all on his Barclaycard.
His card was done for £12,000. It was spent of flights, electrical guitars and really expensive hair dressing stuff like false dreadlocks. As no point did Barclaycard’s super identity theft fighting force call him when his credit card spending pattern changed.

Barclaycard cleared the money off the card for him without question, even clearing a few small genuine purchases he had made.

This has happened to him a few time, he loves his porn and is always joining sites online. I reckon his details come from hacks or shady porn sites selling them on.

What I don't understand is how people get away with stealing card details? Surely, if they're used online to buy something.. the stuff has to be delivered somewhere?

Why aren't the police just visiting these houses and arresting people?

The paper trail must be obvious.

What often happens is that they get the items delivered to a different address, unrelated to them and the card. Sometimes they get it delivered to the cardholders address.

Then, when the person at the delivery address receives a parcel they're not expecting, they usually just leave it by the door until they do something with it. Cue a few hours later, a "courier" shows up (the scam artist in disguise) saying that they've been advised that the address on the parcel was wrong and that it needs to go back to the depot for reprocessing or something like that.

Happened a lot with O2 phones if I remember rightly.

Also, the police don't give a fuck as they generally are understaffed and over administered so they really don't have the time to spend on what can be argued away as a civil matter.