Andy Smith

(1/6) Another person contacting me today asking how to get a #Cifas fraud marker removed. Sadly I don't have any good news for them.

In mid-2017 I found out that in 2014 Halifax bank had added a category 6 Cifas fraud marker for me. I believe they were not justified in doing so, and this negatively affected me quite a lot, so I posted on social media about my attempts to get it removed.

Ultimately I failed and the marker was only removed after 6 years which is what happens by default anyway.

Jan 5, 2023 at 12:58pmWeb
Show threadAndy SmithJan 5, 2023

(2/6) As a result of my postings I get a constant trickle of desperate people asking me how to get these things removed, and I have no good answers for them.

In my case I don't believe the marker was justified, but even when people have done what they are accused of, I think the punishment is often too harsh.

It's extra-judicial in that there's no burden of proof; there's no judge or jury.

The end result can be that someone has no access to financial services, not even a basic bank account.

Show threadAndy SmithJan 5, 2023
(3/6) The consequences are so harsh that I think there needs to be a better system of appeal. I appealed to the Financial Ombudsman and they simply said that it's considered a private database in which banks can store whatever they like. I gave up at that point but I would have thought GDPR at least would require a database to be corrected.
Show threadAndy SmithJan 5, 2023
(4/6) The most common reason why the people contacting me ended up with a fraud marker is that they agreed to mule money, i.e. take a large payment in to their account and immediately move it on, keeping some small amount for themselves. It's laundering the proceeds of crime. These are often young people, who are struggling for money and to them it seems like "free" money and a victimless crime, if they even think of it as being a crime.
Show threadAndy SmithJan 5, 2023

(5/6) Not only is it wrong due to it being the proceeds of fraud, drug dealing, people trafficking, etc., but if you're caught you may end up without bank account, phone contract, new rental agreement etc FOR SIX YEARS.

So don't do that.

Show threadAndy SmithJan 5, 2023

(6/6) I've seen ads for companies that will try to remove Cifas markers for you.

I never tried those as by the time I exhausted the process I was both demoralised and also not that far from the 6 years, so I just decided to wait. I was lucky in that I still had functioning bank accounts and credit cards.

Just out of curiosity I'd be interested to know if those services actually do work, and what they entail.

Show threadAnton PiatekJan 5, 2023
@grifferz sounds awfully tough. You'd expect gdpr to require it to be correct, but unless they're prepared to hand over the details you'd need a court order to change anything in a bank like that. Tough.
Show threadalysonsee (Fca)Jan 5, 2023
@grifferz What a saga. Capricious enforcement of well-intentioned policies can be just as devastating as and perhaps even more demoralizing than nefarious targeting.
Show threadAndy SmithJan 5, 2023
@alysonsee Yeah. I get that financial orgs need to be able to share info about bad actors, but a cat 6 Cifas fraud marker can lose you your job and leave you without a bank account, and your right of appeal ends at the org that added it.
Globalisation makes things cheaper and more efficient but people fall through the cracks.