I lost £1,000, then £900, then £25
AJEET Khatri described how almost £2,000 was plundered from his Tesco Bank account over the weekend.
The 38-year-old business analyst was contacted by the bank at 9.30pm on Saturday and warned that his savings account was at risk.
The bank asked Mr Khatri to phone an adviser urgently, but he was forced to endure a ‘sleepless night’ after being unable to reach an operator.
‘We tried several times and I was on the phone for 55 minutes waiting,’ he said.
Unable to get through, he checked his online account and noticed that three payments of £1,000, £900 and £25 had been siphoned from his account to two unknown companies.
The father of two said: ‘I got very worried and Tesco weren’t picking up the phone. I tried to move the missing money to another account but an error message came up saying I did not have sufficient funds.’
Mr Khatri, from Ilford, Essex, finally managed to make contact with the bank yesterday, 16 hours after receiving the warning.
He opened the savings account with his wife and had never used a debit card they received at the time.
‘One of the biggest issues was getting through on the phone,’ he said. ‘It looks like they weren’t ready for the disaster and didn’t have a plan.’
He added: ‘I won’t rush into moving away for security reasons but I might for its customer services.’