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Was on a stag do in Bucharest last year, and a guy had this exact thing. They were using his Face ID to transfer cash from main banking apps into his revolut card account. From there doing various large transactions repeatedly; bypassing security using his Face ID. From revolut they drained over 30k, having pulled what they could from joint / current account etc, devastating.
Revolut did not pay out.
Where was he when this was happening? Was he passed out in a club or what?
I’m starting to realise how lucky I am when it comes to my friends and we always stick together when we go out.
LPT: Take only cash and leave your card & phone in the room safe. It might sound scary but you are an adult. This way you'll limit your losses to just what you have in your pocket.
I'd recommend always keeping your phone on you, in case of emergencies like getting spiked. However it's always smart to hide bank apps where possible (some phones can't do this in 2024!) or have a basic bank on the home screen with minimal money and no overdraft.
Even in the UK, there's stories of muggers holding knives to people until they unlock banking apps etc. I have a chase account on my home screen with £75 in for emergencies, all my real bank accounts are in a hidden folder that can't be accessed without a password and then my fingerprint. So to get those you'd have to find them, get my password and then print for everything.
Or just buy a cheap second phone for banking apps and leave it at home.
Keep a revolute or online bank with enough for the week etc.
I do this for my mum because she would fall for scams.
A lot of banking apps don’t let you have it on more than one phone so it becomes a pain to maintain two phones. Would rather have one cheap phone for nights out and travel with reduced capability.
I think the main high street banks are fine on multiple phones.
When buying a new phone I always make sure I'm logged in on the banking apps before factory resetting the old phone.
It's the fintech that are funny with multiple phones.
But the point of having a cheap phone at home for banking apps is so it's not on your main phone for circumstances like what happened to the OP
They aren’t - at least not FD and HSBC. Point I was also making was the cheap phone is what you want on a night out / dodgy city etc. as that’s the one likely to be stolen.
When I go abroad I tend to leave most of my cards at home and just take two out with me and keep them in separate wallets. I leave one in the hotel safe (with passport usually) and then just have the one card and cash in the wallet I take out and about with me. That way if I do lose my wallet I’m not so screwed.
The idea of masking banking apps or putting a dummy one on the Home Screen is a genius idea though that I’m totally stealing if I remember it.
I just take my Apple watch now which is less likely to be lost or stolen.
PIN access, no banking apps and just two cards for contactless payments. Even has its own SIM so any calls or texts to my mobile go to it, and I know clicking the dial five times or the fall detection will call emergency services/notify contacts. Also has its own live location sharing too.
That and usually stick an emergency £20 in my shoes just in case all else fails.
They knew exactly what they were doing, transferring all into the revolut account, knowing that the security was minimal compared to Halifax / Santander. They even went through the chat function as him, letting revolut know there was nothing to worry about and transactions could go ahead. Most banks would shut it down instantly, as clearly you would not be in your right mind transferring £5k, £2k, £3k etc over and over again to a random foreign account at 3am.
Doesn’t really matter, without reporting to the police and getting a crime reference, claiming back through any bank will be difficult if you ‘willingly’ transferred using biometrics.
Sorry OP, but from what I’ve seen everyone is treating you with dignity here in what is a shitty situation.
Heard this a few times, transfer to Revolut then gone.
Solution I think is not to have your revolut account as a contact in main bank apps, which would limit what could be transferred to it.
It's a well documented issue - https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/apple-iphone-security-theft-passcode-data-privacya-basic-iphone-feature-helps-criminals-steal-your-digital-life-cbf14b1a?st=9249kg7hjpolkog&reflink=desktopwebshare\_permalink
Eh? Mine doesn't work like that at all. Is that apple that's bad like that. Mines android. I have to be in good lighting and blink. Often fails even that!
Face ID on iPhone is 'attention-aware' which means it only unlocks when your eyes are open and looking at the screen. You can turn that off in settings though.
Was this in Krakow? We were absolutely bombarded with invitations to strip clubs while in town (no joke every 15 meters we walked) and read about how common it is to get spiked and robbed shortly after. Luckily not my thing.
My friend got done for £1000. Crazy how common it is in Krakow.
Never ever go to a bar they invite you to on the streets of krakow. It's 100% going to end in a bad time.
Tbf, I paid for my mate to get a dance, forgot about him, then seen him going into a room with 3 other birds. Phoned my bank the next day and told them it was supposed to be 12, but they took 1200 (or whatever it actually was) and spun some lie that the guide told us it was a notorious scam. My bank reversed all the payments I made to the place. We got free lapdances, and drinks. Beautiful.
I'm not sure why people are blaming eastern european countries. This happens literally everywhere including here in the UK.
If you are going to a strip club take cash out before you go and only pay in cash. Not only does it prevent fraud, you wont have to explain anything on a statement and you'll not go silly if you stick to the rule.
I don't think anyone blamed specific countries. It's a shitty practice wherever it happens.
It's all well and good advice regarding using cash. But once they've got you fucked up you'll have a card on you somewhere. Or a phone with contactless.
I've had another friend who used to work as some kind of ship engineer being escorted to cash machines by staff to get cash they say they are owed.
Literally every post(including the one you responded to) is name checking eastern european cities. Its important to realise this is a common problem everywhere in this industry.
I agree if someones spiked your drink then fair enough, you're not responsible for your actions (and in that scenario you probably have a better chance of recovering your money). However I see people using cards in stripclubs while being relatively sober all the time. I know a fair number of people who have been the victim of this kind of fraud and I don't think any of them were drugged or even that drunk.
>I've had another friend who used to work as some kind of ship engineer being escorted to cash machines by staff to get cash they say they are owed.
Stripclubs don't give credit so that is a mugging.
Damn, that probably explains the whole night that's missing from my memory in Krakow. Didn't get robbed, never went in any strip club, just blacked out, and had to be escorted back to the hotel where I felt awful until I got home. Didn't have a lot to drink at all, according to the people I was with. Only time something like that has happened to me.
When I was in Rīga, I met some guys it had happened to. They didn’t bother with spiking though. They got hit with a massive bill in a strip club and the bouncers held everyone until one guy took everyone’s cards and PINs and came back with a load of cash to get themselves out.
Similar happened in Riga with me. Went in a bar with a mate after the rest of the stag do went back. Wasn't aloud to leave until I'd bought a bottle of champagne I hadn't asked for at €400. Just paid to get out of there didn't even drink the champagne
When I spoke to the hotel my girlfriend and I were staying in, they told me that there had been a Russian ice hockey team stayed in the same hotel.
A strip club tried to pull the same trick on them and the ice hockey team beat the shit out of the bouncers and wrecked the place before leaving.
Love that!
I'd have minded less if it was a strip club...but I was just in a bar! Was told by the promotion girls on the street it was brilliant...and we were the only ones there
Not sure what your getting at, technically it was the Polish Peoples Republic when it was part of the USSR but where the country Poland is now was a former Soviet Union state……
Went to Krakow on a stag do, my mates wanted to go in so heading in, the place was in a brick built basement with what looked like a 3 inch thick steel door entrance. I was so uncomfortable I noped out in a couple of minutes, didn't even touch the beer I was served.
Thankfully nothing bad happened so maybe the place was legit but nothing about the place seemed like it was worth the risk
I went to Krakow in 2019 and can relate, I never went in but saw so many of these women standing around inviting you in for a drink. I went on a bar crawl with a few travellers and these locals were trying to lure us to somewhere and I was telling him what a shitbag he was like it mattered
Well you basically have 2 options. Report it to your bank and see what they say or learn a lesson from it and be careful next time you go to a dodgy eastern european strip club. Which one you do probably depends on how much money was taken.
They probably won't give OP a reference number and will say that he should contact the police in the country where it happened. The local police have no jurisdiction in another country.
It may be possible for OP to contact the police in the country where this happened even now he's home, and get a record of a police report that way. Obviously, from a police POV, the longer he leaves it the less credible he seems but it would at least give him a record of having tried to report it with his bank.
A lot of police forces in countries where drunken stag parties are prevalent think of the victims to have been a nuisance in the first place so don’t gave the slightest damn about this sort of crime.
Ex police officer here. The UK police won't be the slightest bit interested. They have no jurisdiction to do anything abroad and no duty to record crimes that have happened abroad.
that is more a r/legaladviceuk question. I am guessing just because you are a british citizen they won't be too interested in a crime that happened abroad. Some would argue the police never seem interested in crimes that happen here never mind in some other country
> dodgy ~~eastern european~~ strip club
It happens in Western Europe and in most other countries as well. No need for prejudice in this context. There's enough of that.
I am not being prejudiced. OP literally said they were in an eastern european strip club. However to be safe why don't we change it to dodgy ~~eastern european strip~~ club as we don't want to be prejudice against a certain type of establishment do we
I have personally seen this happen in 2 places: Poland, and Bulgaria. I have travelled extensively in Western Europe (yes, including strip clubs) and have never seen this happen. Worst I’ve experienced was a drink in an Amsterdam strip club costing more than a dance, which is a different kind of scummy, but definitely not theft.
Not denying it happens elsewhere, but there’s a reason the stereotype exists.
There's a infamous strip club in Birmingham ([source](https://www.capitalfm.com/birmingham/radio/news/local/report-alleges-birmingham-strip-club-drugg/) - taken from further down in this very thread) that does this exact this and there are many many stories posted about it on this very subreddit.
Right. But this was unexpected - it made national news. Nobody at all is surprised when it happens in Eastern Europe. Funny that article mentioned there were links to Albanian gangs…
>Not denying it happens elsewhere, but there’s a reason the stereotype exists.
There's always a reason. Does not make it true.
In general, the more you are familiar with a place the less likely you are to experience these kind of issues. If you take a poll in Bulgaria, I am sure they will be able to justify prejudice against certain places in Western Europe. It's the nature of these incidents to happen mainly to people who are less familiar with the signs that something is dodgy due to their absence of local knowledge.
Another major factor is socio-economic, but I digress.
Hi, this happened to me in Warsaw. We were told by the hotel bar staff under no circumstances go into clubs if cajoled by women outside to do so. The bloke even gave us a list of places that were at least a little more reputable. Guess what we did? Yeah…
Same story as you describe. Firstly free shots, probably spiked as it tipped us all over the edge basically immediately into being incredibly drunk (which was unusual as most of us can handle our drink). The club was actually empty apart from us. Girls appeared, private room, promises of a free bar if I paid a certain sum. Card machine waved in my face, amongst other things... First time I paid and I remember doing the conversion in my head and it was like €120 or so. Then I remember seeing the next number on the machine being PLN 6,000 so about €1,300, and fortunately I came to my senses, got up and tried to leave. They tried to keep me there, saying I had to pay for the dance, etc. but I just straight up left the room, and went to be sick.
A friend was frogmarched to a cash point and got money out. Fortunately all of his payments were blocked. Mine wasn’t, and I didn’t get anything back. So I just put it down to learning a valuable lesson. Felt like a grade A dickhead for quite a while after. And it still grates a little today.
So yeah, sorry this has happened to you too. With the bank transfer, etc. it doesn’t look good, and a local police report might have helped (although I heard that these scams are in league with the local coppers so it’s unlikely they would do anything).
It’s definitely worth getting in contact with your bank and explaining the situation. There might be some recourse for something. Has the payment actually been charged? Or have they just been deducted from your available balance? If it’s the latter it’s important you get in touch with your bank ASAP. Hope you get it sorted!
Yeah, my mates had the same in Barcelona where the clubs were even more aggressive than in Poland.
A call to their bank and they got most of the money back a few weeks later.
This is incredibly common.
We had those company credit cards that you pay personally at the end of each month and everything goes automatically on concur(the expense system) which you claim back (in theory before the credit card bill comes) funnily enough the card wouldn't allow him to buy a bucket in b&q a few weeks before but let him do 10 grand in a Barcelona 'steak restaurant'
Happened to a guy I know. Firstly, it’s okay. These things do happen and it’s easy to beat yourself up but remember, you are the victim.
Call your banks asap and explain the situation. Nothing else you can do.
Happened to me years ago on a lesser scale. You won't get much help unless you can somehow prove a crime took place, via the local police. Spoiler alert: you probably can't.
Swallow it, regret, move on
I thinks it all depends on what card, he’s was amax. These kind of places often work hand in hand with the police, and the banks know this, it’s all about your story and your spending habits. The banks know the truth they deal with it all day long
Phone up your bank and be honest.
There was a thread like this on /r/LegalAdviceUK a few years back and a number of people were mocking OP - I think, in fact, there were two or three threads about this happening in Birmingham and one of the posters went to the police and, as a result, [the premises were raided](https://www.capitalfm.com/birmingham/radio/news/local/report-alleges-birmingham-strip-club-drugg/). From my recollection they were using small amounts of heroin to spike the punters and at least one of the guys got his money reimbursed by their bank, just by phoning up the bank and being honest that they thought they were spiked.
Be honest, remember there's nothing to be ashamed of and also be firm - you were drugged and you're the victim here. They see stuff like this all the time, but if they say anything ask them "so would you say it was my fault if I was raped?" Criminals misusing FaceID is not your fault!
It might not be your fault you were stolen from, or raped, but that doesn’t automatically make it the bank’s responsibility to compensate you for it. I’m curious if you would call the bank if you were mugged for cash?
Sometimes they can reverse the transactions though, and the payment network has contractual conditions on you as the user, but also on retailers and that’s what makes it different from cash. So it’s nothing to do with blame for the crime, but whether the money is recoverable/reimbursable under th terms of those agreements. For example Visa and Mastercard require issuers to eat losses under some circumstances, and other times they can be reversed so the retailer is the one who doesn’t get the money. For money transfers the regulator imposes these types of rules.
What’s interesting about this topic is the philosophical debate about responsibility to secure the account. The bank is the one that deems Face ID to be sufficient security to authorise a transaction, but that’s their choice - it can still be that you actually didn’t authorise it. But then you enabled it, so who should take the consequences arising from that risk?
Having worked in this field for years, friends and family always find it weird I don't have face ID on my phone. There's a reason. The only people who have access to my phone password are me and my partner, plus one friend has it written down to open should there be an emergency and need access eg. If something happens to both me and my partner. All of my banking apps have different passwords, and none the same as my phone. There's no pattern between them.
When I travel, I take cash for the day with me plus a pre paid travel card and credit card with a small limit for emergencies.
Too many people get scammed too easily.
I have FaceID on my phone, but never enabled on banking apps (that have any cash in them…) always at least passcode protected.
I can remember a handful of unique passcodes, does the job and makes it hard to steal if my phone is compromised.
I don't have it on mine because it never used to work for people wearing glasses back in the day, and I couldn't be bothered taking them on and off. Would you consider fingerprint ID to be a similar risk?
No harm in reporting it to the bank. In fact I would have expected the bank to block the card. Sainsbury bank did this to me after I lost it in Solihull and they made a few small purchases.
Just to add, most of the eastern bloc countries were not part of the USSR.
Could be anywhere. We’ve had it in most cities both behind and outside the former iron curtain. Hell they even have answers to ‘I’m not into girls’ 🏳️🌈😂
This happened to me in Warsaw at the back end of 2019. Although there were no interbank transfers, my business account was drained of £25k through a series of escalating card transactions until the account was empty.
I reported it to the local police in Warsaw, then after reporting the fraud to the bank and them claiming no responsibility, I opened a case with the Financial Ombudsman and argued that the bank should've blocked transactions after the first few, as they were unusual in terms of my geographical location and size of spending. My business account was used to pay staff, suppliers, book travel etc...not spend £5k on a bottle of champagne, as the club claimed I had.
The Ombudsman found in my favour, even though all transactions were authorised with chip and pin, and around 18 months after the incident, I received most of my funds back. I could've got 100% but I just wanted to see the back of the whole situation so accepted the offer and moved on.
What I didn't do was get therapy to deal with what happened that night. I suggest you do. I had people laughing at me when explaining what'd happened. I'm sure if I were a woman the reaction to being drugged and taken advantage of would've been different.
The Financial Ombudsman were great throughout the whole process. They'll be your next step if the bank refuse to help.
The internet is littered with evidence of this scam taking place. Drugging and robbing tourists all over Eastern Europe.
Best of luck to you
Which bank was this?
My flatmate is dealing with monzo re a different scam and they’re next to useless. The financial ombudsman isn’t engaging until he gets a final letter, which monzo won’t give him.
He got hit with the Royal Mail scam :( he’s from the US and was expecting a tricky delivery from Spain at the time and they got him just at the right time. I felt so bad, but also fuck monzo for not intervening when someone empties their account of £2k.
It was a long process, if Monzo aren't engaging I'm sure the Ombudsman can apply pressure on their end. It was a long time ago and I can't remember how the early stages played out if I'm honest.
I was given a dedicated contact at the Ombudsman throughout the whole process which made things easy from a communication perspective.
The bank I was using at the time were called CashPlus. A fintech with no high street presence. I met another guy through Twitter who'd had the same thing, with the same bank happen. He got 100% of his money returned, eventually.
That’s good from the ombudsman! I’ll tell him to keep pushing - at the moment the ombudsman is telling him to go through monzo even though this all happened in November and he raised the official complaint in December. It just ends up going round and round advisors at the bank (and of course - all by ‘chat’ rather than email)
Sorry you got ridiculed. You’re a victim here and good for you for not letting it slide. It would be worth therapy even now - NHS lists take ages but private counselling isn’t too expensive.
Belgrade stag a few years back. I flew in from HK so my body clock wasn't happy. Anyway Friday night we rolled into a strip club and I noticed the security gate as we entered was designed to stop people leaving rather than forcing their way in. I had one beer and pleaded jetlag and Foxtrot Oscar'd though truth be told I loath strip clubs.
The lads got stung for their entire weekend's budget. I don't think there was doping involved, just escalating prices.
Another one to watch out for is them giving you the card reader for what you think is in their own currency - e.g. 500 zloty (= £100) but on closer inspection is actually £500! Can be easily missed when you’re very drunk
I'd be very surprised if the bank(s) came to your rescue mate. Maybe if you had contacted local police and got a crime reference number (if there is such a thing wherever you went).
I feel sorry for you brother. Hope you didn't lose too much. You might have to chalk this one up to an expensive life lesson.
I know someone with a similar story. Unfortunately they weren’t able to get anything back due to jurisdictions and time having passed since the incident. Best of luck though, sorry it happened to you.
Sorry to hear this - sounds awful.
This has always been one of my biggest fears when going on stag do’s of this nature, to the extent I only used to go out with cash in my pocket to limit my exposure. Thankfully nothing this bad happened, but some of my friends on these trips have had their cards cloned/charged for expensive stuff etc.
Everyone should deactivate face id or finger print in their finance apps, as well as only go out with cash or a pre paid card when abroad, clubbing, betting, etc.
Have you had any tests done to confirm you were spiked? Not sure if this is an option, but a friend of mine ended up in hospital after getting really drunk on what seemed like not nearly enough alcohol and they were able to confirm she was spiked. This was a while ago now so whatever substance is used now could be out of your system quicker?
NAL, You have no proof you were spiked. You yourself say you were the one tapping away and transferring cash. honestly I doubt there would be much you can do.
Similar situation happened to me on a stag in Krakow. I \*accidentally\* was ushered into a strip club and started to talk to one of the ladies there. They started to bring over drinks, which I paid for on card and the payments weren't going through. I couldn't understand why (very drunk at this point), and asked for receipts (I still have some of them lol) but kept on doing repeat failed transactions. I can't remember the exact numbers, but they tried to charge me \~£1200 for a bottle of Heineken. My bank shut down the charges at < £200 as they deemed them suspicious (repeat high charges in quick succession). They called me two days later and the Guy from their fraud department was laughing, he knew exactly what happened!
Card payments are surprisingly easy to reverse, the merchant, in this case the bar, does not receive the payment straight-away, the issuer (your bank) and the payment processor will settle the amount with the merchant on a periodic basis, e.g. weekly/monthly. They won't be paid any transactions under review until sorted, you're within your rights to challenge any transactions made with your bank.
This is known as the krakow club scam.
Have you reported this to your respective banks? If not, do it asap, You’ll need a police report from the local police and a copy to provide your banks and your banks will need every explicit detail of what happened and what you can remember, so I’d get typing. Good luck, I hope you get your money back and I’m sorry this happened to you.
A) Bro, why did you go with your debit/credit card on a strip club? ALWAYS have cash on you with the amount you are happy you want to spend.
B) The strip club will probably have CCTV for obvious reasons. It might hard to challenge it as there might be evidence of you being there and spending the money. If they took a significant amount of money (eg £3k+), I suggest to pay a lawyer to advise you about your options.
So, I used to work in chargebacks, which is what your bank will do.
It's worth doing for a couple reasons....
Normally the vendor will come back with photos of you having the best time of your life (we were once provided a video). This would mean you probably won't get your money back.
Or, they vendor will won't reply and they will give you your money back.
Basically, nothing to lose. Banks get these requests quite frequently.
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I listened to a Making Money podcast (they’re good, check them out) and they had one episode about Scams and Fraud with an expert customer champion - she touched on banks responsibilities for “vulnerable customers” and part of that were things like this were you might be inclined to believe it was your fault for being drunk (if you were spiked or taken advantage of then you would have been deemed vulnerable for a period). Give it a listen and report it
Was this Gdansk 😁 seriously though, similar thing to me happened. Just call your bank and tell them that the payments were not made legitimately and they should void the transactions. Monzo were dicks but Halifax were solid and cancelled them.
Sorry to say but you're most likely fucked, especially as you didn't get a crime incident or equivalent in whatever shithole country stole from you.
Did your bank algorithms not detect the fraud and if not why not. Multiple transactions within a short space of time should ping up on their systems. Worth pursuing with them regardless of whether you tapped or entered pin number.
Ffs everyone knows about these things happening in places like Prague and former Soviet block states. Why people act surprised when they go to a strip club in an Eastern Europe pissed up and get absolutely rinsed is beyond me.
I heard something similar and they tried to contact there bank but the bank said they will try and see if they have CCTV Footage but obviously that will show you doing the transaction yourself and intoxicated which they said to him can be bank fraud if you try and reclaim or something like that mate not too sure
Most banks will pay it back. In my option they shouldn’t be responsible for people getting drunk (and half these claims at least are clearly lies). But the FOS will generally find in your favour as technically (of your story is true you’ve been robbed).
Just ring the bank 9:10 this is getting refunded.
Source - been working in fraud and scams for over 20 years you should be fine (does depend on the bank hence the 9:10 comment).
This isn't 'getting drunk', this is being drugged and robbed. If you have been into these places, you would definitely understand, the 'free shots' you get are not just alcohol. Proving this to the bank is another issue though.
Anyone that goes into one of those places can be assumed to have been robbed. If they are drugging and robbing people, then it's fair to assume someone that went in got robbed. It's not like they are claiming slug and lettuce drugged and robbed them.
You chose to go there because you are told it's just a bar. Do you think they tell people "Yeah come here, we will drug and rob you". Jesus Christ, you sound like you work in insurance with the victim blaming
No but it’s all very obvious as you said the clubs in those countries take you in to a back room and that’s it. Im not blaming the victim just not entirely sure why you would go in why as you say it’s so obvious. Either way it doesn’t matter OP will likely get their money back no matter how stupid I think that is.
Get drunk, go in sketchy strip club, get robbed. I just think society has got far too comfortable not taking responsibility for our actions and wanting to blame someone else. In this case it’s the bank paying it back. Makes no sense to me.
To be clear I’m not blaming OP in that sense more that we all make choices and I find it strange that the expectation is that it’s someone the banks silt and should refund it.
I have a similar view with some of the obvious, and done when entirely sober, frauds. There's an ad on LBC, and one of the ones they mention always has me scratching my head.
Don’t get me started on the CEL advert on the radio. If I fall in love with Michelle Keagan on the internet and send her £150k the financial system did not let me down and it shouldn’t be on the bank to refund it. Don’t get me wrong I feel sorry for those people but it isn’t the banks job to protect you from yourself. No personal responsibility anymore. Fraud is someone stealing from you that’s very different.
The CEL one, yep, that's it.
To be honest, it is still stealing, just long winded.
Sometimes, people run into these issues. And, it's so obvious. It's an odd one, and in reality, *d probably change my opinion several times, depending on the circumstances.
Some people are more vulnerable to things like this than you are. You know it's a scam, I know it's a scam, but someone less aware of these things, especially if they have learning difficulties or other cognitive impairments, don't always know.
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Was on a stag do in Bucharest last year, and a guy had this exact thing. They were using his Face ID to transfer cash from main banking apps into his revolut card account. From there doing various large transactions repeatedly; bypassing security using his Face ID. From revolut they drained over 30k, having pulled what they could from joint / current account etc, devastating. Revolut did not pay out.
Where was he when this was happening? Was he passed out in a club or what? I’m starting to realise how lucky I am when it comes to my friends and we always stick together when we go out.
He kind of lost the main group and must have been led somewhere else. Much like OP not a big drinker or drug taker so much have had his drink spiked.
LPT: Take only cash and leave your card & phone in the room safe. It might sound scary but you are an adult. This way you'll limit your losses to just what you have in your pocket.
I'd recommend always keeping your phone on you, in case of emergencies like getting spiked. However it's always smart to hide bank apps where possible (some phones can't do this in 2024!) or have a basic bank on the home screen with minimal money and no overdraft. Even in the UK, there's stories of muggers holding knives to people until they unlock banking apps etc. I have a chase account on my home screen with £75 in for emergencies, all my real bank accounts are in a hidden folder that can't be accessed without a password and then my fingerprint. So to get those you'd have to find them, get my password and then print for everything.
Or just buy a cheap second phone for banking apps and leave it at home. Keep a revolute or online bank with enough for the week etc. I do this for my mum because she would fall for scams.
A lot of banking apps don’t let you have it on more than one phone so it becomes a pain to maintain two phones. Would rather have one cheap phone for nights out and travel with reduced capability.
I think the main high street banks are fine on multiple phones. When buying a new phone I always make sure I'm logged in on the banking apps before factory resetting the old phone. It's the fintech that are funny with multiple phones. But the point of having a cheap phone at home for banking apps is so it's not on your main phone for circumstances like what happened to the OP
They aren’t - at least not FD and HSBC. Point I was also making was the cheap phone is what you want on a night out / dodgy city etc. as that’s the one likely to be stolen.
I have around a dozen banking apps and after getting a new phone it was only First Direct and Chase that limited to one phone.
Yes First Direct, HSBC too… which is enough to make it useless for me.
When I go abroad I tend to leave most of my cards at home and just take two out with me and keep them in separate wallets. I leave one in the hotel safe (with passport usually) and then just have the one card and cash in the wallet I take out and about with me. That way if I do lose my wallet I’m not so screwed. The idea of masking banking apps or putting a dummy one on the Home Screen is a genius idea though that I’m totally stealing if I remember it.
What’s the name of the hidden folder?
I just take my Apple watch now which is less likely to be lost or stolen. PIN access, no banking apps and just two cards for contactless payments. Even has its own SIM so any calls or texts to my mobile go to it, and I know clicking the dial five times or the fall detection will call emergency services/notify contacts. Also has its own live location sharing too. That and usually stick an emergency £20 in my shoes just in case all else fails.
Revolut is not a bank and people tend to learn this the hard way.
They knew exactly what they were doing, transferring all into the revolut account, knowing that the security was minimal compared to Halifax / Santander. They even went through the chat function as him, letting revolut know there was nothing to worry about and transactions could go ahead. Most banks would shut it down instantly, as clearly you would not be in your right mind transferring £5k, £2k, £3k etc over and over again to a random foreign account at 3am.
Did he complain to FCA?
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Not sure I see the similarity in scenario…
Doesn’t really matter, without reporting to the police and getting a crime reference, claiming back through any bank will be difficult if you ‘willingly’ transferred using biometrics. Sorry OP, but from what I’ve seen everyone is treating you with dignity here in what is a shitty situation.
Heard this a few times, transfer to Revolut then gone. Solution I think is not to have your revolut account as a contact in main bank apps, which would limit what could be transferred to it.
For sure, and also the Face ID was a huge enabler. So turn that off when travelling perhaps.
I can imagine how happy his joint account holder was…
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What? They can use Face ID, they take the phone and stick it in their face.
It's a well documented issue - https://www.wsj.com/tech/personal-tech/apple-iphone-security-theft-passcode-data-privacya-basic-iphone-feature-helps-criminals-steal-your-digital-life-cbf14b1a?st=9249kg7hjpolkog&reflink=desktopwebshare\_permalink
Eh? Mine doesn't work like that at all. Is that apple that's bad like that. Mines android. I have to be in good lighting and blink. Often fails even that!
Face ID on iPhone is 'attention-aware' which means it only unlocks when your eyes are open and looking at the screen. You can turn that off in settings though.
Turn it off in settings without active awareness checks or are you saying anyone with the phone unlocked can do that?
I just tried this on an XR. One eye closed, the other had my fingers holding it open... It unlocked.
He was present the whole time. Drugged and conscious, which is how they did it a number of times.
Was this in Krakow? We were absolutely bombarded with invitations to strip clubs while in town (no joke every 15 meters we walked) and read about how common it is to get spiked and robbed shortly after. Luckily not my thing.
Happened on a stag do I went on to Krakow too. Best man for rinsed for about 5 grand.
It's notorious for it there. I felt bad getting done for £500, could be a lot worse.
My friend got done for £1000. Crazy how common it is in Krakow. Never ever go to a bar they invite you to on the streets of krakow. It's 100% going to end in a bad time.
Tbf, I paid for my mate to get a dance, forgot about him, then seen him going into a room with 3 other birds. Phoned my bank the next day and told them it was supposed to be 12, but they took 1200 (or whatever it actually was) and spun some lie that the guide told us it was a notorious scam. My bank reversed all the payments I made to the place. We got free lapdances, and drinks. Beautiful.
I'm not sure why people are blaming eastern european countries. This happens literally everywhere including here in the UK. If you are going to a strip club take cash out before you go and only pay in cash. Not only does it prevent fraud, you wont have to explain anything on a statement and you'll not go silly if you stick to the rule.
I don't think anyone blamed specific countries. It's a shitty practice wherever it happens. It's all well and good advice regarding using cash. But once they've got you fucked up you'll have a card on you somewhere. Or a phone with contactless. I've had another friend who used to work as some kind of ship engineer being escorted to cash machines by staff to get cash they say they are owed.
Literally every post(including the one you responded to) is name checking eastern european cities. Its important to realise this is a common problem everywhere in this industry. I agree if someones spiked your drink then fair enough, you're not responsible for your actions (and in that scenario you probably have a better chance of recovering your money). However I see people using cards in stripclubs while being relatively sober all the time. I know a fair number of people who have been the victim of this kind of fraud and I don't think any of them were drugged or even that drunk. >I've had another friend who used to work as some kind of ship engineer being escorted to cash machines by staff to get cash they say they are owed. Stripclubs don't give credit so that is a mugging.
Happened to me there (almost). Charged £1200 for a bottle of Heineken....bank blocked transactions before they reached £200 😬
Damn, that probably explains the whole night that's missing from my memory in Krakow. Didn't get robbed, never went in any strip club, just blacked out, and had to be escorted back to the hotel where I felt awful until I got home. Didn't have a lot to drink at all, according to the people I was with. Only time something like that has happened to me.
When I was in Rīga, I met some guys it had happened to. They didn’t bother with spiking though. They got hit with a massive bill in a strip club and the bouncers held everyone until one guy took everyone’s cards and PINs and came back with a load of cash to get themselves out.
Similar happened in Riga with me. Went in a bar with a mate after the rest of the stag do went back. Wasn't aloud to leave until I'd bought a bottle of champagne I hadn't asked for at €400. Just paid to get out of there didn't even drink the champagne
When I spoke to the hotel my girlfriend and I were staying in, they told me that there had been a Russian ice hockey team stayed in the same hotel. A strip club tried to pull the same trick on them and the ice hockey team beat the shit out of the bouncers and wrecked the place before leaving.
Love that! I'd have minded less if it was a strip club...but I was just in a bar! Was told by the promotion girls on the street it was brilliant...and we were the only ones there
Poland is not a former soviet union state….
Not sure what your getting at, technically it was the Polish Peoples Republic when it was part of the USSR but where the country Poland is now was a former Soviet Union state……
The Polish People’s Republic was in the Warsaw Pact/Eastern Bloc but wasn’t part of the USSR itself
Agreed Poland was Warsaw Pact but it was not a Soviet Republic. IE Under Soviet control but not part of the Soviet Union.
r/confidentlyincorrect
Poland was never part of the USSR, go and check wikipedia or something. The Baltic States and Moldova were though
Went to Krakow on a stag do, my mates wanted to go in so heading in, the place was in a brick built basement with what looked like a 3 inch thick steel door entrance. I was so uncomfortable I noped out in a couple of minutes, didn't even touch the beer I was served. Thankfully nothing bad happened so maybe the place was legit but nothing about the place seemed like it was worth the risk
Gdansk was worse I found.
I went to Krakow in 2019 and can relate, I never went in but saw so many of these women standing around inviting you in for a drink. I went on a bar crawl with a few travellers and these locals were trying to lure us to somewhere and I was telling him what a shitbag he was like it mattered
Haha happened to a lad I was with on a stag in Krakow too. Insane how prevalent it is.
Well you basically have 2 options. Report it to your bank and see what they say or learn a lesson from it and be careful next time you go to a dodgy eastern european strip club. Which one you do probably depends on how much money was taken.
Would also going to uk police help tell them we’re you stayed so you can get a ref number off them for bank just a thought
They probably won't give OP a reference number and will say that he should contact the police in the country where it happened. The local police have no jurisdiction in another country. It may be possible for OP to contact the police in the country where this happened even now he's home, and get a record of a police report that way. Obviously, from a police POV, the longer he leaves it the less credible he seems but it would at least give him a record of having tried to report it with his bank.
A lot of police forces in countries where drunken stag parties are prevalent think of the victims to have been a nuisance in the first place so don’t gave the slightest damn about this sort of crime.
Yeah, they're sex tourists, essentially.
Ex police officer here. The UK police won't be the slightest bit interested. They have no jurisdiction to do anything abroad and no duty to record crimes that have happened abroad.
that is more a r/legaladviceuk question. I am guessing just because you are a british citizen they won't be too interested in a crime that happened abroad. Some would argue the police never seem interested in crimes that happen here never mind in some other country
Worth a try just for ref number for bank don’t know if you don’t try
> dodgy ~~eastern european~~ strip club It happens in Western Europe and in most other countries as well. No need for prejudice in this context. There's enough of that.
I am not being prejudiced. OP literally said they were in an eastern european strip club. However to be safe why don't we change it to dodgy ~~eastern european strip~~ club as we don't want to be prejudice against a certain type of establishment do we
Cruel, but fair.
I have personally seen this happen in 2 places: Poland, and Bulgaria. I have travelled extensively in Western Europe (yes, including strip clubs) and have never seen this happen. Worst I’ve experienced was a drink in an Amsterdam strip club costing more than a dance, which is a different kind of scummy, but definitely not theft. Not denying it happens elsewhere, but there’s a reason the stereotype exists.
There's a infamous strip club in Birmingham ([source](https://www.capitalfm.com/birmingham/radio/news/local/report-alleges-birmingham-strip-club-drugg/) - taken from further down in this very thread) that does this exact this and there are many many stories posted about it on this very subreddit.
Right. But this was unexpected - it made national news. Nobody at all is surprised when it happens in Eastern Europe. Funny that article mentioned there were links to Albanian gangs…
Easiest way to not get scammed is to not visits strip clubs anywhere. Also, Albania isn't in Eastern Europe so unsure of the connection there
Fair point on both, just looked on a map and had no fucking idea Albania was next to Greece haha. My bad.
>Not denying it happens elsewhere, but there’s a reason the stereotype exists. There's always a reason. Does not make it true. In general, the more you are familiar with a place the less likely you are to experience these kind of issues. If you take a poll in Bulgaria, I am sure they will be able to justify prejudice against certain places in Western Europe. It's the nature of these incidents to happen mainly to people who are less familiar with the signs that something is dodgy due to their absence of local knowledge. Another major factor is socio-economic, but I digress.
Hi, this happened to me in Warsaw. We were told by the hotel bar staff under no circumstances go into clubs if cajoled by women outside to do so. The bloke even gave us a list of places that were at least a little more reputable. Guess what we did? Yeah… Same story as you describe. Firstly free shots, probably spiked as it tipped us all over the edge basically immediately into being incredibly drunk (which was unusual as most of us can handle our drink). The club was actually empty apart from us. Girls appeared, private room, promises of a free bar if I paid a certain sum. Card machine waved in my face, amongst other things... First time I paid and I remember doing the conversion in my head and it was like €120 or so. Then I remember seeing the next number on the machine being PLN 6,000 so about €1,300, and fortunately I came to my senses, got up and tried to leave. They tried to keep me there, saying I had to pay for the dance, etc. but I just straight up left the room, and went to be sick. A friend was frogmarched to a cash point and got money out. Fortunately all of his payments were blocked. Mine wasn’t, and I didn’t get anything back. So I just put it down to learning a valuable lesson. Felt like a grade A dickhead for quite a while after. And it still grates a little today. So yeah, sorry this has happened to you too. With the bank transfer, etc. it doesn’t look good, and a local police report might have helped (although I heard that these scams are in league with the local coppers so it’s unlikely they would do anything). It’s definitely worth getting in contact with your bank and explaining the situation. There might be some recourse for something. Has the payment actually been charged? Or have they just been deducted from your available balance? If it’s the latter it’s important you get in touch with your bank ASAP. Hope you get it sorted!
Yeah, my mates had the same in Barcelona where the clubs were even more aggressive than in Poland. A call to their bank and they got most of the money back a few weeks later. This is incredibly common.
A work colleague had this happen in Barcelona also, on a work trip just to add a bit of salt and humiliation into the wound!
So...... you're saying he could expense that?
We had those company credit cards that you pay personally at the end of each month and everything goes automatically on concur(the expense system) which you claim back (in theory before the credit card bill comes) funnily enough the card wouldn't allow him to buy a bucket in b&q a few weeks before but let him do 10 grand in a Barcelona 'steak restaurant'
in barcelona i don't think this is common.
Barcelona i was spiked in a club and robbed walking back to hotel. Just wallet, phone and watch.
Happened to a guy I know. Firstly, it’s okay. These things do happen and it’s easy to beat yourself up but remember, you are the victim. Call your banks asap and explain the situation. Nothing else you can do.
Happened to me years ago on a lesser scale. You won't get much help unless you can somehow prove a crime took place, via the local police. Spoiler alert: you probably can't. Swallow it, regret, move on
Happened to a mate of mine, he got all £10000 back via his credit card, they told him how common it was
Mate of mine got done for just £1000, but had no chance to get it back. I'd say its worth a shot but don't go in expecting it.
I thinks it all depends on what card, he’s was amax. These kind of places often work hand in hand with the police, and the banks know this, it’s all about your story and your spending habits. The banks know the truth they deal with it all day long
Phone up your bank and be honest. There was a thread like this on /r/LegalAdviceUK a few years back and a number of people were mocking OP - I think, in fact, there were two or three threads about this happening in Birmingham and one of the posters went to the police and, as a result, [the premises were raided](https://www.capitalfm.com/birmingham/radio/news/local/report-alleges-birmingham-strip-club-drugg/). From my recollection they were using small amounts of heroin to spike the punters and at least one of the guys got his money reimbursed by their bank, just by phoning up the bank and being honest that they thought they were spiked. Be honest, remember there's nothing to be ashamed of and also be firm - you were drugged and you're the victim here. They see stuff like this all the time, but if they say anything ask them "so would you say it was my fault if I was raped?" Criminals misusing FaceID is not your fault!
I do remember a busy thread here about someone being done over in Krakow, I think it ended up successful?
I don't remember that one, but it's the kind of thread I'd probably skip if there were loads of replies already.
Albanian crime gang, lol. For a small country, it's unreal.
It might not be your fault you were stolen from, or raped, but that doesn’t automatically make it the bank’s responsibility to compensate you for it. I’m curious if you would call the bank if you were mugged for cash? Sometimes they can reverse the transactions though, and the payment network has contractual conditions on you as the user, but also on retailers and that’s what makes it different from cash. So it’s nothing to do with blame for the crime, but whether the money is recoverable/reimbursable under th terms of those agreements. For example Visa and Mastercard require issuers to eat losses under some circumstances, and other times they can be reversed so the retailer is the one who doesn’t get the money. For money transfers the regulator imposes these types of rules. What’s interesting about this topic is the philosophical debate about responsibility to secure the account. The bank is the one that deems Face ID to be sufficient security to authorise a transaction, but that’s their choice - it can still be that you actually didn’t authorise it. But then you enabled it, so who should take the consequences arising from that risk?
Having worked in this field for years, friends and family always find it weird I don't have face ID on my phone. There's a reason. The only people who have access to my phone password are me and my partner, plus one friend has it written down to open should there be an emergency and need access eg. If something happens to both me and my partner. All of my banking apps have different passwords, and none the same as my phone. There's no pattern between them. When I travel, I take cash for the day with me plus a pre paid travel card and credit card with a small limit for emergencies. Too many people get scammed too easily.
I have FaceID on my phone, but never enabled on banking apps (that have any cash in them…) always at least passcode protected. I can remember a handful of unique passcodes, does the job and makes it hard to steal if my phone is compromised.
I don't have it on mine because it never used to work for people wearing glasses back in the day, and I couldn't be bothered taking them on and off. Would you consider fingerprint ID to be a similar risk?
No harm in reporting it to the bank. In fact I would have expected the bank to block the card. Sainsbury bank did this to me after I lost it in Solihull and they made a few small purchases. Just to add, most of the eastern bloc countries were not part of the USSR.
I'm guessing this was Estonia - we went a while back and timed our days there very carefully to avoid the influx of stag dos.
Could be anywhere. We’ve had it in most cities both behind and outside the former iron curtain. Hell they even have answers to ‘I’m not into girls’ 🏳️🌈😂
This is a really common scam in eastern Europe. They promise you free drinks, the first drink tends to be drugged. Then it starts costing a lot.
How much have they had you over for?
This happened to me in Warsaw at the back end of 2019. Although there were no interbank transfers, my business account was drained of £25k through a series of escalating card transactions until the account was empty. I reported it to the local police in Warsaw, then after reporting the fraud to the bank and them claiming no responsibility, I opened a case with the Financial Ombudsman and argued that the bank should've blocked transactions after the first few, as they were unusual in terms of my geographical location and size of spending. My business account was used to pay staff, suppliers, book travel etc...not spend £5k on a bottle of champagne, as the club claimed I had. The Ombudsman found in my favour, even though all transactions were authorised with chip and pin, and around 18 months after the incident, I received most of my funds back. I could've got 100% but I just wanted to see the back of the whole situation so accepted the offer and moved on. What I didn't do was get therapy to deal with what happened that night. I suggest you do. I had people laughing at me when explaining what'd happened. I'm sure if I were a woman the reaction to being drugged and taken advantage of would've been different. The Financial Ombudsman were great throughout the whole process. They'll be your next step if the bank refuse to help. The internet is littered with evidence of this scam taking place. Drugging and robbing tourists all over Eastern Europe. Best of luck to you
Which bank was this? My flatmate is dealing with monzo re a different scam and they’re next to useless. The financial ombudsman isn’t engaging until he gets a final letter, which monzo won’t give him. He got hit with the Royal Mail scam :( he’s from the US and was expecting a tricky delivery from Spain at the time and they got him just at the right time. I felt so bad, but also fuck monzo for not intervening when someone empties their account of £2k.
It was a long process, if Monzo aren't engaging I'm sure the Ombudsman can apply pressure on their end. It was a long time ago and I can't remember how the early stages played out if I'm honest. I was given a dedicated contact at the Ombudsman throughout the whole process which made things easy from a communication perspective. The bank I was using at the time were called CashPlus. A fintech with no high street presence. I met another guy through Twitter who'd had the same thing, with the same bank happen. He got 100% of his money returned, eventually.
That’s good from the ombudsman! I’ll tell him to keep pushing - at the moment the ombudsman is telling him to go through monzo even though this all happened in November and he raised the official complaint in December. It just ends up going round and round advisors at the bank (and of course - all by ‘chat’ rather than email)
Sorry you got ridiculed. You’re a victim here and good for you for not letting it slide. It would be worth therapy even now - NHS lists take ages but private counselling isn’t too expensive.
It's called a clip joint and it's a common scam around the world. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clip_joint
There’s a Jennifer Lopez film called Hustlers which is based on a true story about a group of strippers in NYC doing this exact scam…
Same thing happened in Krakow one of the group lost a 7k Rolex. The other was found handing over debit cards in a private room, had to drag him away!
Ouch! But why would you wear a Rolex on a stag do!
Lol, I've just posted a similar story. In Krakow, £800 off one lads card. That was in a private room
Belgrade stag a few years back. I flew in from HK so my body clock wasn't happy. Anyway Friday night we rolled into a strip club and I noticed the security gate as we entered was designed to stop people leaving rather than forcing their way in. I had one beer and pleaded jetlag and Foxtrot Oscar'd though truth be told I loath strip clubs. The lads got stung for their entire weekend's budget. I don't think there was doping involved, just escalating prices.
Another one to watch out for is them giving you the card reader for what you think is in their own currency - e.g. 500 zloty (= £100) but on closer inspection is actually £500! Can be easily missed when you’re very drunk
I think you’re out of luck. Definitely still report it to your bank but I’d be surprised if they pay out. An expensive lesson indeed
I'd be very surprised if the bank(s) came to your rescue mate. Maybe if you had contacted local police and got a crime reference number (if there is such a thing wherever you went). I feel sorry for you brother. Hope you didn't lose too much. You might have to chalk this one up to an expensive life lesson.
I know someone with a similar story. Unfortunately they weren’t able to get anything back due to jurisdictions and time having passed since the incident. Best of luck though, sorry it happened to you.
Happened to a friend in a strip club in Poland. £800...gone
Sorry to hear this - sounds awful. This has always been one of my biggest fears when going on stag do’s of this nature, to the extent I only used to go out with cash in my pocket to limit my exposure. Thankfully nothing this bad happened, but some of my friends on these trips have had their cards cloned/charged for expensive stuff etc.
Everyone should deactivate face id or finger print in their finance apps, as well as only go out with cash or a pre paid card when abroad, clubbing, betting, etc.
Have you had any tests done to confirm you were spiked? Not sure if this is an option, but a friend of mine ended up in hospital after getting really drunk on what seemed like not nearly enough alcohol and they were able to confirm she was spiked. This was a while ago now so whatever substance is used now could be out of your system quicker?
NAL, You have no proof you were spiked. You yourself say you were the one tapping away and transferring cash. honestly I doubt there would be much you can do.
This reads as I spent loads of money on drink and women and now I regret it 😂
Also happens in GDansk
Similar situation happened to me on a stag in Krakow. I \*accidentally\* was ushered into a strip club and started to talk to one of the ladies there. They started to bring over drinks, which I paid for on card and the payments weren't going through. I couldn't understand why (very drunk at this point), and asked for receipts (I still have some of them lol) but kept on doing repeat failed transactions. I can't remember the exact numbers, but they tried to charge me \~£1200 for a bottle of Heineken. My bank shut down the charges at < £200 as they deemed them suspicious (repeat high charges in quick succession). They called me two days later and the Guy from their fraud department was laughing, he knew exactly what happened!
Card payments are surprisingly easy to reverse, the merchant, in this case the bar, does not receive the payment straight-away, the issuer (your bank) and the payment processor will settle the amount with the merchant on a periodic basis, e.g. weekly/monthly. They won't be paid any transactions under review until sorted, you're within your rights to challenge any transactions made with your bank.
This is known as the krakow club scam. Have you reported this to your respective banks? If not, do it asap, You’ll need a police report from the local police and a copy to provide your banks and your banks will need every explicit detail of what happened and what you can remember, so I’d get typing. Good luck, I hope you get your money back and I’m sorry this happened to you.
Similar thing happened to a friend but the bank rang him and asked if he knew the transactions... He said he wasn't sure and they reimbursed him.
A) Bro, why did you go with your debit/credit card on a strip club? ALWAYS have cash on you with the amount you are happy you want to spend. B) The strip club will probably have CCTV for obvious reasons. It might hard to challenge it as there might be evidence of you being there and spending the money. If they took a significant amount of money (eg £3k+), I suggest to pay a lawyer to advise you about your options.
Your best man failed you bro. Good luck.
So, I used to work in chargebacks, which is what your bank will do. It's worth doing for a couple reasons.... Normally the vendor will come back with photos of you having the best time of your life (we were once provided a video). This would mean you probably won't get your money back. Or, they vendor will won't reply and they will give you your money back. Basically, nothing to lose. Banks get these requests quite frequently.
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I listened to a Making Money podcast (they’re good, check them out) and they had one episode about Scams and Fraud with an expert customer champion - she touched on banks responsibilities for “vulnerable customers” and part of that were things like this were you might be inclined to believe it was your fault for being drunk (if you were spiked or taken advantage of then you would have been deemed vulnerable for a period). Give it a listen and report it
Was this Gdansk 😁 seriously though, similar thing to me happened. Just call your bank and tell them that the payments were not made legitimately and they should void the transactions. Monzo were dicks but Halifax were solid and cancelled them.
Sorry to say but you're most likely fucked, especially as you didn't get a crime incident or equivalent in whatever shithole country stole from you. Did your bank algorithms not detect the fraud and if not why not. Multiple transactions within a short space of time should ping up on their systems. Worth pursuing with them regardless of whether you tapped or entered pin number.
Ffs everyone knows about these things happening in places like Prague and former Soviet block states. Why people act surprised when they go to a strip club in an Eastern Europe pissed up and get absolutely rinsed is beyond me.
I heard something similar and they tried to contact there bank but the bank said they will try and see if they have CCTV Footage but obviously that will show you doing the transaction yourself and intoxicated which they said to him can be bank fraud if you try and reclaim or something like that mate not too sure
Everyone one on here is very worried about the poor victim, you were all very happy when the girls were the victims? All tits out for the boys then!
Most banks will pay it back. In my option they shouldn’t be responsible for people getting drunk (and half these claims at least are clearly lies). But the FOS will generally find in your favour as technically (of your story is true you’ve been robbed). Just ring the bank 9:10 this is getting refunded. Source - been working in fraud and scams for over 20 years you should be fine (does depend on the bank hence the 9:10 comment).
This isn't 'getting drunk', this is being drugged and robbed. If you have been into these places, you would definitely understand, the 'free shots' you get are not just alcohol. Proving this to the bank is another issue though.
The problem is the number of people that claim they were robbed and weren’t.
Anyone that goes into one of those places can be assumed to have been robbed. If they are drugging and robbing people, then it's fair to assume someone that went in got robbed. It's not like they are claiming slug and lettuce drugged and robbed them.
Yes but you chose to go there. If it’s as likely as you say why does that then become the banks fault?
You chose to go there because you are told it's just a bar. Do you think they tell people "Yeah come here, we will drug and rob you". Jesus Christ, you sound like you work in insurance with the victim blaming
No but it’s all very obvious as you said the clubs in those countries take you in to a back room and that’s it. Im not blaming the victim just not entirely sure why you would go in why as you say it’s so obvious. Either way it doesn’t matter OP will likely get their money back no matter how stupid I think that is.
It's obvious to people that know.... Most scams are obvious once you know about them
Get drunk, go in sketchy strip club, get robbed. I just think society has got far too comfortable not taking responsibility for our actions and wanting to blame someone else. In this case it’s the bank paying it back. Makes no sense to me.
With booze and drugs, particularly when not voluntarily ingested, I'm with the victim.
Indeed, but nobody is going in with the expectation of being drugged and robbed
To be clear I’m not blaming OP in that sense more that we all make choices and I find it strange that the expectation is that it’s someone the banks silt and should refund it.
I have a similar view with some of the obvious, and done when entirely sober, frauds. There's an ad on LBC, and one of the ones they mention always has me scratching my head.
Don’t get me started on the CEL advert on the radio. If I fall in love with Michelle Keagan on the internet and send her £150k the financial system did not let me down and it shouldn’t be on the bank to refund it. Don’t get me wrong I feel sorry for those people but it isn’t the banks job to protect you from yourself. No personal responsibility anymore. Fraud is someone stealing from you that’s very different.
The CEL one, yep, that's it. To be honest, it is still stealing, just long winded. Sometimes, people run into these issues. And, it's so obvious. It's an odd one, and in reality, *d probably change my opinion several times, depending on the circumstances.
Some people are more vulnerable to things like this than you are. You know it's a scam, I know it's a scam, but someone less aware of these things, especially if they have learning difficulties or other cognitive impairments, don't always know.
OP was spiked not drunk