We've been cloned. Well, more specifically, Jan has had her French bank card cloned and someone has used it to place bets with a company in France. As it stands we are 1700 euros down the pan.
Anyway, after discussions with Credit Agricole in Nimes, I was told that after a bit of form filling and a report from the police in England, the fraud could be passed to their investigation unit in Paris.
Off I went to our local nick, this was going to be the easy bit, only to be informed that they couldn't issue an incident number because it wasn't a crime that they could or would investigate. After all, the fraud had happened in France they said.
They gave me a tiny slip of paper that showed the name and collar number of the person to whom I spoke which looked fairly meaningless and which I knew would be unlikely to satisfy French bureaucracy. I was right.
'Can't they put a stamp on it to make it look more official,' they said.
I could see where this was going so I drafted a simple letter which I thought the police could photocopy onto police headed paper and set off in hope.
'No can do,' said the desk policeman, 'we don't even issue anything to help insurance claims in England, only if it's a crime that we will investigate.'
After a bit of pleading and brown nosing he said, more to get rid of me than anything else, 'I'll go to a higher authority and see what happens. But don't raise your hopes.'
Not very hopeful of a successful outcome we discussed making a trip to Nimes to report the fraud to the police in France. When all was said and done 1700 euros was at stake.
Anyway, one hour after we got home I was emailed an excellent letter on Police headed paper which referred to having reported the fraud and that it wasn't their policy to supply anything further. Brilliant. All the proof that I needed given the circumstances, they understood exactly what I needed.
Result.
Crikey, what a palaver.
ReplyDeleteI hope you get it sorted out but something tells me things in France are often not that straightforward.
I wish you luck.
I wish you luck too. Nothing seems to be secure these days.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks. Really. Happened to Martin some years ago - they spent over £3000. Very scary stuff.
ReplyDeleteThanks guys. The last time we were in France was September which is when the card details were probably cloned. Funny that they waited until January to use it but there you go. The moral is keep a close watch on your account.
ReplyDeleteApparently 6 months is the usual time lapse for a cloned card to be used, often just before the card expires.
ReplyDeleteThat's what happened to us. We think the card details were hijacked by an internet company where we bought some computer ink.
That's terrible! I hope things turn out okay. I've heard of this happening before, and it is scary. Good luck on getting the money back.
ReplyDeleteWe ate at a busy resto in Azay le Rideau and I remember the waiter taking the card away before coming back with the machine. I thought at the time that it was strange and would be my best guess as to where it happened. But how can you tell?
ReplyDeleteThanks for your wishes MT, fingers crossed.
Azay le Rideau - that's on my patch.....which just goes to show there are wicked people everywhere.
ReplyDeleteI had mine done. I was only out of pocket for a couple of months before Caisse d'Epargne refunded the money.
ReplyDeleteOf course it is possible the crooks could spend less than Jan - so reporting it may be a mistake ?