Solar panels sent meter backwards

In August 2015 I had 10 solar panels fitted to my garage roof and, although a customer of Extraenergy

for both electricity and

still on the phone to him, you navigated through your computer and on to online banking, presumably to check that you had received the alleged refund.

Right at the beginning, HSBC, having tried to speak to you without success, checked and found that you had logged in using your identification number, had answered correctly the memorable question and had used the secure key, which provides a unique one-time security code for its customers using internet banking.

The latter can be acquired only by tapping into a card reader, which is separate from the computer.

After you had pressed another button, payment beneficiaries were set up

by the fraudster from, we think, behind a false screen possibly created by using a screenshot. The beneficiary accounts registered in this way included a Barclays account into which £1,989 of the stolen money was put and one at NatWest into which sums amounting to £5,726 were also deposited.

The fact that you released so much security information means that HSBC is treating the dispute as a scam rather than a fraud. The bank concluded: “There is not any protection available to either recall or reimburse the funds.”

I spoke to Barclays and, two days after my involvement and many weeks after the event, it returned the £1,989 to your HSBC account and also

credited £100 for goodwill.

It apologised for not having advised you sooner that the money had actually been secured. Barclays said: “As soon as HSBC alerted us to the scam we did begin our investigation. However, we have apologised to Mr W for the time we have taken to confirm that the funds were secured.”

At my suggestion you used this as a precedent and contacted NatWest, which had acknowledged that some funds had been frozen in the recipient account but had given no hint as to how much this amounted to.

NatWest sought an indemnity from the sending bank. At my request HSBC agreed to provide this but paper copies got lost somewhere and, in the end,

with further prompting from me, an indemnity was sent electronically. Once that process was complete, NatWest returned the £1,706, which was all that remained in the account your money had gone into.