Friendly banking? Not likely

We go on about security measures in business but what about the lax security policies of banks?

I've recently become the victim of a significant card cloning fraud and it truly is a horrible experience.

I'm now faced with the scenario of having no current account card and having to deal with all the hassle that comes with reporting a fraud.

But the thing that astounds me the most is the blatant disreguard for security measures that the bank in questions - Barclays - has shown.

Last night a huge amount of money was taken out of my account - twice within two minutes - and the bank didn't think to actually check with me first before authorising it?

Smacks of incompetence to me.

And it worries me how long this is going to take to sort out and what charges I'm going to incur as a result of Barclay's incompetence in the meantime?

As customers of banks - both in a business sense and a consumer sense - we are expected to guard our bank accounts appropriately and ensure that our businesses do not transact with fraudsters by implementing a stringent set of safety checks before parting with money or goods.

But if a bank that is supposed to be safeguarding your money, doesn't even bother to check with the bank account holder on a clearly suspicious amount of money going out an account - then what hope do we have?

It doesn't help that I was put onto an extremely unhelpful 'customer service' agent from its fraud office in the handy location of Dehli - who repeatedly couldn't understand why I wouldn't shout out details of my finances when standing at a very public phone in the corner of the bank. The rudeness astounded me to be honest and I was made to feel like it was all my fault. That conversation didn't last very long.

Of course it wasn't my fault that some scumbag decided to clone my card and steal huge amounts of money out of my account thus putting me in the red, and I'm not going to let this go until I get a satisfactory answer. I want to know why a bank like Barclays is allowing fraudsters to get away with this right under its nose and who is allowing it to happen in the first place.

The banking industry has got away with far too much for too long and I for one, am sick of it.