"There's nothing we can do."

This is probably the only sentence that I will never forget. But let me get to that, here's a little background story.

I'm 21 male, born and raised in Slovakia, however, certain circumstances forced me to leave my country and travel abroad to find a job. A really close family friend told us that there are some great job opportunities in the UK so I didn't hesisate and I borrowed 600€ from my dad, changed the euros to pounds and went to the UK where I got the job as promised. However, it wasn't really a job. I would say that I was rather... Enslaved. Yeah, that's the right word - enslaved. I will not write much about the job because I could write a book about it. The improtant thing is that from the very first day I got the "job", I was convinced that I want to go back home as soon as I make money I borrowed - which is 600€ + the air ticket 75€.

Now the important part...

I went to a local TSB Bank in the UK just about a week ago before leaving the UK. While setting up the bank account I asked the manager that in a week I am leaving the UK and whether the credit card with the PIN code will arrive in less than a week to my UK address. He said that I'll receive everything within 5 days, and by everything he meant the VISA Debit card, a letter with PIN code in it and some information about internet banking, etc. So I was pretty happy to hear that, I thought that everything's going to turn out great even though I had a really bad time in the UK because I was getting treated like ***** in my job.

After I received the credit card I went straight away to my local TSB bank again to deposit all the cheques I had (I didn't want to cash the cheques because the fees were too high, I wanted to deposit it and then withdraw it from the cash machine). I deposited 400 pounds from my cheques. Then I went to work again and I received another 200 pounds for another three days of work so I had 600 pounds on my bank account.

At this point I was really happy, because I finally had all the money needed to go back home. I could pay back the debt I had and I could happily live once again... Or at least that was what I thought.

I flew back home 5 days ago. My father is only 2 days at home and then he leaves for 5 days, so I was like: "There's no need to hurry. The money are safe in my bank account, I'll just wait until he gets back home, I'll withdraw them and give it to him". Three days ago, he came back and I told him with joy in my eyes that I've got the money for him. I was so happy that I got back home, I had the money and I was away from the terrible job. Immediately I went to the "magnificient" internet banking application to see my account balance.

I entered my User ID, and my password.
Bang.
Can't login - the website popped up with a message that my password is not correct.

"Mmmmmkay, I think I misspelled something, let's try that again." - My thoughts exactly.

I entered the password again. Wrong password. Okay I've got to have my caps lock turned ON or something.
Caps Lock OFF - check
Num Lock ON - check

Now let's try that again. Wrong password one more time. At this point I was really confused. I took my mobile phone and phoned to my girlfriend because she was with me while creating the bank account. I asked her whether my User ID and password are correct. She said: "Yup, that's your user ID and password."
I couldn't login so I assumed that I'm the only one to blame here and during the internet banking creation process I had to misspell the password. I took the phone and called right away to TSB to have my password reset. After 20 minutes I was done and happy that I'll be able to log in. I entered my User ID, my password and logged in to finally check the balance, and send the money from my UK bank account to my Slovak bank account so I can withdraw them. I couldn't believe what I saw after I got into the internet banking service. My account balance was only TWO pounds. Of course I didn't believe that. There's no possible way how's my account balance only two pounds when I deposited 400 pounds when I was in the UK, and my employer sent me another 200. I was so confused and didn't know what to think, I clicked on "My transactions" tab to see what's going on. And there was it. Someone got access into my account and transfered all my money to another bank account. My entire world just fell down and shattered into milion pieces. You can't imagine how I felt. Again, I took the phone and phoned TSB to resolve this problem as soon as possible. The conversation with the man on the line went something like this:

Me: Hi, I've got a huge problem and this is going to take a couple of minutes, since I'm calling from abroad my phone bill is going to be way too big. Can you please call me back?

Call Center Guy: Sorry, I can't.

Me: Oh, okay listen. Someone got an access to my bank account and withdrew all my money.

Call Center Guy: Okay, before proceeding I need to ask you a couple of security questions to ensure it's your account.

Me: Okay.
-- I answered the security question and we proceeded to resolve the problem
--

Call Center Guy: Since this is not a problem for us to resolve, I will hang up and link you over to fraud department, is that okay to you?

Me: Yeah that's okay.

-- At this point I listened to the automated system saying every 10 seconds that they are extremely busy and I'm in queue waiting for an operator. This took maybe 10 minutes. My phone bill was already almost 50 € big. --

Fraud Department Lady: Hello, how can I help you?

Me: Hi. Someone got an access to my bank account and transfered all the money into his own bank account.

Fraud Department Lady: Okay, do you have a UK driving license?

-- I was like.. WTF? Why does she need a driving license? --

Me: No I only have european driving license.

Fraud Department Lady: Do you have a passport?

Me: No, I do not have a passport because we europeans mostly travel only with our ID.

Fraud Department Lady: Okay we are very sorry but you need to visit your local TSB bank branch to resolve this problem.

Me: I'm sorry but I can't because I just left the UK and I'm not coming back in the near future.

Fraud Department Lady: We are sorry but there's nothing we can do.

This was not the first time I called them. I called them like 10 times. Sometimes the operator told me that I didn't answer the security questions correctly and I needed to call back. Sometimes the operator asked for my Security Number they sent me via mail. I was like "What security number?!". Then they told me that yesterday they sent me some security number via my mail but I told them that I didn't get anything because I'm not in the UK anymore. The manager that was opening the bank account in TSB for me didn't tell me anything about some Security Number that will come via mail. Someone probably took it and got access into my account and transfered the money. It's just so confusing, I can't believe it. I think I'm dreaming. Now I'm sitting here in my room trying to figure out what to do. I'm completely broke with 2 pounds on my bank account, waiting for my dad to come home in a couple of days. I have no idea what will I tell him. Absolutely no idea. TSB doesn't want to help me. I tried to contact police and they told me that they can't do anything since the money transfer happened in the UK. I'm writing this post to warn you guys - never open a bank account with TSB. They will not help you if you get into problems. Instead, they'll slap you accross the face and tell you to f**k off.

PS: I know this is only my second post on this forum but I posted here because I love 2+2 and poker. I was stalking 2+2 for a while but decided to post just now to share my story.

PS2: If the guy who took my money is reading this... I just want to tell you that I'll stalk you and I'll fu*king kill you.

PS3: I can't fly back to the UK because the tickets are way too expensive now and I'd need to borrow the money for tickets again. I already have a phone bill about 100 € and tickets to fly to the UK would be 200 € + I would need to travel and eat there so I think I would return back without a single pound if I decided to go to the UK and resolve the problem personally.

Skim reading it seems like you spent $100 on the phone call trying to recover $600. Overall, that seems pretty dumb, and I doubt you are handling this optimally based on those facts alone.

If you can cliff this in ~150 words I think it would greatly improve your chance of getting responses that could help you.

-money stolen from bank account (would guess phising, not sure how else it could of happened)
-bank will do nothing because he doesn't have a valid UK drivers license or a passport
-told to visit bank to resolve problem, can't do so because he no longer lives where the bank is located

Feel for ya OP, hope you can get it resolved (though it seems unlikely ;/)

I have no idea how it happened but as I said, my bank sent me a letter with sensitive information yesterday to my UK address. But the problem is that the manager didn't tell me that there will be a letter with sensitive information arriving to my UK address a month after opening a bank account. That's just dumb. So I'm assuming someone got the letter and somehow gained access to my internet banking and transfered the money. I'm thinking what to do next. I know the name of the person who did it because I could see it on my internet banking statement. I'll try to figure something out tommorrow.
Thanks anyways.

When someone steals your car, your car dealership doesn't care and they can't do much about it. They tell you to call the cops.

Same with banks. A bank can't really do much if someone gained access to your account and cashed it out. It is your responsibility to keep your private information private. When someone steals your money, it is a matter for cops to figure out. And it is also you job to keep up with the cops to make sure they ask the bank for x, y, z if you want to have a chance of results.

***

I am curious to hear what you consider "enslaved". If you got 200 pounds for 3 days of work, that is basically USA minimum wage for 3 days of hard work.

I'm no genie, but it's probably best not to deposit your net worth in a newly opened foreign bank account and then leave the country before you've verified internet banking.

also its 600euro, even if you got it back.. you would be broke again in 3 weeks.

You're kinda wrong there, buddy. Quote from merseyside's police website:

"The procedure has changed. It is now the financial institutions who are the first and main point of contact for these types of offences.

The first and most important step to take is to contact your bank/credit card company and advise them of the transactions.

The bank/credit card company will investigate the matter and where appropriate inform the police."

Now about the job. The job was sickening. There was this manager who treated us like s**t. Yelled and threatened us all the time. She yelled even if you asked her something that you didn't know how to do even though it was your second day in the job. She was English and people working there for minimum wage were mostly middle-europeans who came to the UK seeking better life. I've never ever been so depressed in my life while working there, because it just felt devastating when somebody treates you like that. By the way, we worked 12 hours every day. We woke up at 4 in the morning and came back home at 8 in the evening. The job was 2 hours away from our place. I don't know if you guys in the US work under similar circumstances, but this was the worst experience in my life.

I think you didn't read or understand my first post. I had verified internet banking, I tried it a couple of hours before leaving the UK to ensure everything is working. I thought that every single letter with sensitive information already arrived so I took all of 'em and left the UK. Nobody told me that there will be a letter with sensitive information arriving to my UK addres almost a month after leaving the country. Well, I don't know if the guy who stole the money used somehow the letter, but it's rather suspicous that after they sent me the letter my money just vanished. If they told me that there will be such letter arriving to my inbox, I'd tell them to not to send it or I'd stay a little longer in the UK.

I know it's not a lot but I needed those money, because those money weren't mine I needed to pay it back to my dad.

Here's what I would do:

- Phone them again via Skype and explain what's happened
- If no resolution, use the banks written official complains procedures. Mention the costs you've incurred so far (phone bill) and include a copy of your statement as proof. Make sure you write as concisely as possible.
- Keep everything they send to you
- If not resolved, contact the financial ombussman
- If not resolved, perhaps consider small claims courts but this is probably impractical and not worth the time/money
- If not resolved, unlucky Banks are bastards.

Unfortunately you could be looking at several months before you see it back. It's not clear if the funds were stolen or not from trying to read your OP, if stolen possibly consider reporting it as a crime and get a crime reference number. Mention this number in your communications with the bank/ombussman.

Is there any chance the cheques hadn't cleared and the company just bounced them?

DaeMay, what made you find this forum or to post here about it? We aren't really the type of forum that can give you good advice as this is not our specialty. To be honest, your whole post sounds more of a sob story without any truth behind it which makes me question your true intentions, with you being a new poster without any history that only adds to my suspicions. I hope I'm wrong but I have seen this before.

Nailed it.

Surprised it took someone this long.

OP will be asking someone to wire him money soon.

GF stole money, transferred money to anonymous bank account. Who else had your bank details beside your GF?

She'll shortly break up with you within a month or so.

You made 200 pounds for 3 days work? If you had 400 from previous checks, then you worked for this place for a total of 9 days? How often did they cut you checks, since you said you had so many to cash? Sounds strange to me.

Why don't someone just wire op money so he can get his funds released and pay you vig. Problem solved. Any takers?

OP,

On a scale of 1-10, how far did your stomach drop into your groin after reading that post?

Was about a 4 for me, and I was just rando lurking your thread.

It may not be quick but contact them via letter or email. Explain you cannot reasonably visit branch to resolve problem and have already spent a lot on phone calls. Ask them to investigate.

if they don't respond or respond with no help then raise a complaint with the bank. there's a link to the complaints form and other information on how to raise a complaint here: http://www.tsb.co.uk/contact_us/comp..._procedure.asp


If that still doesn't work then contact the financial ombudsman
how to complain link: http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.u...complaints.htm

Really liked the ps, ps1, ps2

I feel your pain op