Consumer complaint received 2015-09-09
Product: Credit card — 
Issue: Balance transfer — 
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE (NY)

In XXXX 2015 I started to write to a girl in XXXX, that I met thru an on line dating site. I am retired for a yr and tired of being alone. I sent her some cash using XXXX XXXX or XXXX in XXXX and XXXX for her to get documents and be ready to move XXXX. In our daily letters she mentioned early on that her dad was deceased for XXXX yrs. 
In XXXX she asked me to help with an issue, the story was that her deceased dad 's long lost business partner was here, XXXX, and wanted to send to her cash for her elderly mom to live on there XXXX. She asked me to contact this fellow XXXX and to work with him. The guys name was XXXX XXXX. We connected via phone and e mail many times-he asked me to use my charge card accounts to take balance transfers, put that cash into my checking account and to wire that cash to the family XXXX specifically the 'uncle ' of my 'friend ' XXXX, and the younger brother of her mom. He said he wanted to repay my charge accounts using direct electronic deposits from his business account, that they would be business expenses on his records. 
As he would the next day or 2 after my taking the balance transfers repay my accounts, including the related balance transfer fees, I could check and see the repayment had been made by calling the bank before wiring the funds XXXX. This seemed odd to me, but I was anxious to help my friend and utterly safe to me financially. I had earned an excellent credit history over the years by never being late, and never charging more than I could readily repay. 
I had already received from l l Bean- Barclays a sheet of 'convenience checks ' to use as balance transfers. I used the XXXX, number XXXX on XXXX. Then on XXXX I wrote out incorrectly # XXXX it did not process. I did use on XXXX # XXXX. When I called and asked for more checks, the person at the bank advised me to just do balance transfers, that they were the " same thing as the checks ''. Shortly after I would call back to Barclays and I always stated that the previous transfer was to have been paid by a 3rd party and asked that it be checked that the transfer and fee had been paid. When the Barclay agent verified the last transfer was paid already I felt entirely safe to take another transfer ( or write another check ) as well as to send XXXX the collected funds. 
By this means Barclays enabled me to send XXXX {$13000.00} XXXX times and then $ XXXX the XXXX {$9500.00} drawn in XXXX XXXX I still am holding in an account here. All thru XXXX and early XXXX I felt I was being the greatest possible friend to these people, I had no clue this was a scam until I received a letter in mid XXXX that the payments to my cards had all failed, and that I was therefore in debt for this tremendous amount. I also found then that the supposed payments from XXXX XXXX business were instead done by him calling in to the bank CLAIMING TO BE ME, and using some fake account to repay the charges. 
Again, as I had said each time that the payments were made by a 3rd party, if the Barclay employee had noted they were made by " me '' this could have been averted. Why would I need to ask if my own payment was made? 

I contacted the Barclay fraud department, to dispute the XXXX XXXX transfers, they stated as I had supplied my account no. to XXXX XXXX XXXX there was no fraud and that I was wholly responsible. My identity had been used to make fake payments each time, I now owed XXXX my maximum limit. I also requested they separate the last {$9500.00} and to treat it as a loan I would repay at the rate of $ XXXX ( I now I have the whole {$9500.00} plus {$500.00} fee/ $ XXXX set aside-I sold an old boat in XXXX XXXX during the following year. They refused to separate the bills and I was advised that to pay any amount would imply I was admitting to be legally responsible for the whole debt. They also told me then