I was duped by a crook who spent £6,498 of my cash – but Santander refuses to reimburse me: SALLY SORTS IT
In November last year I was phoned by a man who said his name was Jonathan, purportedly from my home services provider Utility Warehouse (UW).
He said he had seen some unusual activity on my account.
It turns out he was a fraudster who managed to convince me to pass over my account details.
This allowed him to transfer money from my Santander bank account to my UW Cashback Card, which he used to go on a £6,498 spending spree with my money.
Santander told me it would not reimburse me as I had authorised four top-ups to the card. This does not seem fair.
A.G., Cheshire.
Denied: A reader was scammed out of £6,500 by a man posing as someone from their energy supplier Utility Warehouse – but their bank wont refund the cash
Sally Hamilton replies: Utility Warehouse is a provider of household utilities whose customers pay for a range of services via a single bill.
Customers are offered greater discounts the more services they take. You told me you use it for energy, broadband, mobile and home insurance.
The company also offers a cashback debit card, which customers top up and use in various retailers with any cashback earned used towards their monthly bill.
One of the ways UW builds its business is through ‘partners’ who are typically existing customers it pays for introducing new ones.
The fraudster who called you caught you off guard because he gave the name of the partner who originally introduced you and your daughter, who is also a customer, to UW. He also appeared to be calling from the official UW number. You felt reassured.
It is unclear how he got these details and your contact number in the first place. But together these allowed him to glean enough information to go on and request top-ups from your Santander account, raise the card’s spending limit and then use it in retailers including a luxury men’s outfitter and two wine stores.
You complained to UW about your experience, believing it should have done more to stop the fraud in its tracks. You wrote a letter to its chief executive in December but got no response.
I contacted UW on your behalf, asking it to explain what went wrong. On investigating, it said it had taken steps to secure your account at the time of the incident but did not explain how the fraudster managed to spend such large sums in quick succession before the card was blocked.
A spokesman says: ‘We’re very sorry for the stress our customer has been through after her cashback card was fraudulently topped up.
‘We understand that an unauthorised person was able to socially engineer a situation where they were able to get access to one-time passcodes and carry out transactions on the card via her bank card.’
It says it issues warnings to its customers about giving out one-time passcodes and account details to people who request them.
However, it acknowledges it let you down by failing to act on your letter of complaint and has offered you £250 as an apology.
Since it was clearly a fraud involving your bank account, and the series of top-ups had not been flagged as suspicious at the time, I asked Santander to reconsider reimbursing you.
After a few days, and following a call with you, it came back in agreement. A Santander spokesman says: ‘We have every sympathy for those who become victims of fraud.
‘After having an additional conversation with our customer, we were able to confirm that she had been a victim of an unauthorised card fraud. We can confirm we will be refunding the full amount stolen, £6,498.’
Why am I paying so much for life insurance?
I have tried to get information about my portfolio of Phoenix Life whole-of-life insurance policies since February 2023.
The policies were first taken out by my late husband and me in 1998, with a payout on second death so that our only child will benefit. Monthly payments have been made regularly since then.
For the past few years, I have been paying a direct debit totalling £100 a month. I have contacted Phoenix multiple times as I have noticed that since 2020, it has quoted a direct debit of £38 and, on one occasion, it said for that sum the payout on death would be nil.
I want to understand what is going on and what my total £100 a month to Phoenix is paying for. Please help.
D.E., Carmarthen.
Sally Hamilton replies: This is a lamentable way to treat a customer of 27 years. I asked Phoenix to get an answer to you pronto.
This prompted it to rise from its ashes of non-communication, with a member of the group’s executive complaints team sending you an email in which he cleared things up.
He explained that you currently have two portfolios with a total of eight policies.
Seven of them are covered by a £38 a month direct debit which provides a sum assured of nearly £81,000 – not nil as one of your past statements from Phoenix had asserted.
The premium for the remaining policy is £62 a month, for the sum assured of £133,371 – meaning your £100 a month total direct debit currently gives you cover of £214,118.
You are aware an important decision probably awaits you next year. Your premiums are reviewable rather than fixed, and the next review is in March 2026.
Chances are your premiums will rise – potentially sharply – leaving you to decide whether to accept the higher premiums, reducing or ending cover.
Your decision will depend on what happens to your premiums and you tell me you plan to seek independent advice shortly.
A Phoenix spokesman said: ‘We recognise that we have fallen short with the service we’ve provided. We should have been able to provide the information requested much earlier and we are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused.’
- Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk — include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.
