Barclays urges customers to do ‘simple check’ after saver hit by fraud | Personal Finance | Finance
Barclays has urged customers to carry out a basic check after a customer was alerted to fraudulent activity on two of their bank cards.
The saver previously contacted the bank as they were struggling to access their funds after the fraud alerts.
They said they had had to cancel their card due to fraudulent activity but had faced further issues.
Writing to Barclays over X, they said: “I’ve been sent a replacement but currently waiting on delivery. In the Barclays app, there’s a digital version of the new card but it’s being declined for payments and I’ve received a text of more fraudulent activity on this new card, apparently.
“I can’t reply “N” to the text because the one payment isn’t mine but the others are. What do I do as I need to pay for travel to and from work today? I can’t withdraw cash as I have no card and I can’t use the digital form.”
The bank encouraged the customer to send them a direct message so they could help with their query.
Express.co.uk asked Barclays for comment about what customers should do in this situation.
A spokesperson said: “The general advice on this situation would be to call the bank to speak to an agent to understand why blocks on card(s) are happening and help the customer resolve that.
“Sometimes, it could be as simple as confirming whether suspicious usage on the customer card/bank account is genuine or fraudulent.”
The bank said that in their efforts to prevent fraud, they have multi-layered security systems, including a transaction profiling system unique to each customer.
Fraud detection and machine learning systems are in place to detect suspicious payments, with customers given additional checks if a transaction is deemed to be risky.
Customers are encouraged do their research before making any payments to a company or website to make sure it is authentic.
You should be wary if you make a payment and it bounces back straight away, as this may mean the account has been closed due to it being suspected of being used for fraudulent activity.
Barclays will sometimes ask a customer why they are making a transfer. Customers are urged to indicate the right reason for the payment, and if someone asks you to input a reason that is not the real one, they may well be a scammer.
