Fraud

Have you noticed suspicious activity on your account and are you worried that you may have been a victim of fraud?

As a first step, we recommend that you check the details of the transaction that you are concerned about immediately as there can be several legitimate explanations for the unrecognised transaction. We have added some of the most common ones below to get you started:

• Does the company to which the payment transaction has been made trade under an alternative tradename/alias which is different to their official business name/registered company name? You can find information about a company’s registered and trading names in the business registers for the company’s geographic location:
  
  In the UK, this can be found using Companies House: Get information about a company - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). In the Netherlands, this can be found using the Dutch Chamber of Commerce Trade Register: KVK - Kamer van Koophandel | KVK
• Could the payment transaction be for a regular payment for a subscription service?
• Could you have been charged by a subscription service after the expiry of a free trial period for a product/service?
  
• Could the payment transaction have been made by a joint account holder or a secondary cardholder?

If you still do not recognise the transaction after having completed the checks above and continue to be concerned that you have been a victim of fraud, you must report your concerns to your bank or payment services provider (“PSP”) immediately. It is your bank’s or PSP’s responsibility to contact the beneficiary bank or PSP and investigate your concerns. We recommend providing your bank or PSP with as much detail as possible for an efficient and effective investigation.

Please remember that fraud is a crime. In addition to reporting it to your bank or PSP, you should also report it to the police via the ActionFraud website. The police will log the details of the incident and give you a crime reference number. In European jurisdictions, please follow the local process for reporting fraud to an appropriate law enforcement agency.

As soon as your bank or PSP has information for you, or needs further information, they will get in touch with you. However, feel free to contact your bank or PSP if you require an update.

As an agency and transactional banking, foreign exchange and multi-currency services provider, as well as a direct participant in the Target2, SEPA (Instant) Credit Transfer, Faster Payments, Bacs and CHAPS payment schemes, we are able to provide our bank and PSP customers with the ability to process payments for their customers by utilising our banking license and technology solutions. This means that we do not oversee day-to-day operation and management of any account(s) held with our customers, as it is our customers’ responsibility being the beneficiary bank or PSP. As such, to deal with any suspected fraud related issues in the most effective and efficient way, your bank or PSP will need to contact our customer (acting as the ‘Beneficiary Bank’) directly and raise a Fraud Indemnity Claim given that ClearBank, as a provider of agency services does not have access to the systems of our customers.

We also provide Embedded Banking whereby we outsource certain aspects of the end customer interface which allows our Embedded Banking clients to provide the end customers with FSCS eligible protected deposit accounts. To deal with any suspected fraud related issues for these types of accounts, you should reach out to our Embedded Banking client servicing the deposit account in the first instance.

Use the Sort Code Checker or IBAN to identify the Beneficiary Bank associated with the sort code:

• Enter https://newseventsinsights.wearepay.uk/sort-code-checker in the address bar of your browser or https://www.myswiftcodes.com/en (EU) in the address bar of your browser.
• Enter the Bank’s sort code in the 'Type the sort code below' field and click 'Check sort code'.
• The name of the institution that owns the sort code will appear.

To contact the Beneficiary Bank:

• For UK regulated institutions: you can find the beneficiary bank’s details on the FCA’s Financial Services Register - https://register.fca.org.uk - or the Beneficiary Bank’s proprietary website.
• For Dutch licensed institutions: you can find the beneficiary bank’s details on the De Nederlandsche Bank register - https://www.dnb.nl/en/public-register.
• For other countries please check your local Central Bank's website.

Having followed the above steps, if you require any further help or support, please send an email to the appropriate regional mailbox below, providing us with a summary of the suspected fraud including the date and reference of your bank’s or PSP’s fraud indemnity claim.

UK: [email protected]

EU: [email protected]

If you would like to raise any other fraud related concerns with us, please send details to [email protected].

UK

• ActionFraud: UK’s national fraud and cyber crime reporting centre.
• Take Five - To Stop Fraud: National campaign that offers straightforward and impartial advice to help everyone protect themselves from preventable financial fraud.
• Metropolitan Police.
• National Cyber Security Centre: Provides advice and support for the public and private sector in how to avoid computer security threats and online fraud.

Netherlands

• FraudHelpDesk - NL: The Dutch national anti-fraud hotline for reporting fraud and guidance on protecting people against fraud and other financially motivated crimes. This website also includes a link to searchable list of company names (managed by the Dutch Police) highlighting any perpetration of fraud.
• Dutch Business Guide: Information for entrepreneurs, including guidance on running your business and how to avoid or respond to occurrences of fraud.
• Dutch Chamber of Commerce - Kamer von Koophandel:
• Dutch Police: Central Dutch police website. Reporting of a crime can be conducted through this website.

For other countries please consult your local Central Bank or police website.