A stranger got hold of my debit card details and keeps ordering takeaways to their address on the app Uber Eats. 

Uber will not help me to block my card or address, citing data protection regulations. 

My bank, Barclays, keeps issuing me new debit cards, but this doesn’t seem to stop the thief making orders. 

I am on my fifth debit card since February. Barclays can’t seem to sort the problem either. 

They simply tell me to go to the police. Please help.

L.L., Camberley, Surrey.

Sally Hamilton replies: You contacted me in late April, by which time you were getting heartburn from Uber Eats’ inability to block an account opened by an unknown person who had hijacked your card details. 

You have never had an account with either the minicab app Uber or its food delivery arm Uber Eats, so were baffled by the turn of events. 

Uber Eats wouldn’t tell you where it was delivering the orders to for data protection reasons, but they certainly weren’t arriving at your home, which is the address linked to your debit card.

The sums involved weren’t huge, totalling about £10 or £20 each time. However, you were afraid other payments might be taken and so cancelled your Barclays debit card.

Being told to go to the police by Barclays for these mystery payments seemed over the top. But you did as suggested, only to be directed instead to the website of Action Fraud, recently renamed Report Fraud. 

The clue in the name is that it collects reports of fraud but does not investigate them. It passes cases to the police, but only if it feels they are viable. I felt you had been fobbed off.

You tried the Financial Ombudsman Service, only to be told that Uber Eats did nothing wrong and was right not to talk to you due to data protection regulations. 

The matter was becoming urgent, as you and your partner are hoping to move house and will soon have a large sum of money in your account for the transaction.

You were fearful the Uber Eats fraudster might somehow be able to access these funds. I asked both Uber Eats and Barclays to help you.

A few days later, Uber Eats finally served up the right answer and shut the fraudster’s account.

An Uber Eats spokesman says: ‘We have closed the account in question. Uber Eats takes all allegations of fraudulent activity on accounts seriously and we stand ready to support law enforcement with further investigation.

‘This support experience fell below our high standards and we are investigating so we can improve going forward.’

Uber Eats says it will reimburse the £47.50 spent by the thief as a goodwill gesture.

Barclays found that the original debit card had been cancelled as part of its fraud prevention processes, when an unauthorised person used it to book a ride on a taxi app. 

The replacement card was used to buy two Uber Eats orders using an Uber Eats account in the perpetrator’s name.

You only noticed the second order after you had received the third card, which you also cancelled, even though the order was on the previous one. 

The fourth card’s details were then used by the crook to order another takeaway. You cancelled this one and ordered yet another card. There have been no unauthorised transactions on this card to date.

Barclays admitted human error in dealing with your cards. The bank failed to remove the link between your old card details and the Uber Eats account involved as soon as the new card was issued. 

This meant the bank account remained linked and the thief didn’t need to enter the new card information.

Barclays has also reimbursed the £47.50 in unauthorised payments, meaning you have been repaid twice. It also paid you £100 as an apology for the inconvenience.

DWP's paying me someone else' pension

On March 25, I received a letter from the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) saying they were sorry about the death of my partner, ‘Mr P.T.’, and that they had awarded me an increase in my monthly state pension. 

As I had never heard of this person, this was obviously meant for someone else.

I phoned the DWP and was passed from pillar to post, ending up with the department where deaths are reported. No one I spoke to could help me.

The last person I spoke to recommended I return the letter to the Pension Service with a covering letter explaining the situation and they would get back to me.

When I heard nothing, I sent a letter with copies of the relevant paperwork to the complaints department. 

That was April 2 and I still have not heard from anyone. Since then, I have had two payments into my bank account that do not belong to me. This has been very distressing for me.

S.B., Maidenhead.

Sally Hamilton replies: I applaud you for being so diligent in attempting to get the DWP to correct this upsetting mistake, which amounted to you receiving two payments totalling £596. 

Bouquets to you but brickbats to the DWP for the blunder, and for being unable to put you in touch with the people who could correct it. They simply told you to write in, which you did.

What worried both you and me is that while you were trying to get this matter sorted, the bereaved partner of PT was not receiving the payments due at a distressing time in their life.

I stepped in and asked the DWP to put the situation right, pronto. 

Within a few days, it came back to explain that, due to an administrative error, your state pension record was incorrectly updated on March 17 to include inheritable National Insurance components linked to a Mr PT, who died on March 3.

A DWP spokesman says: ‘We apologise to Mrs B for the administrative error made to her state pension account and for any distress this caused. We have spoken to her directly to apologise, and have now resolved the matter.’

Your pension has been restored to its correct rate of £231.20 a week. The DWP will not be clawing back the overpayment as it was an error on its part.

Normally, overpayments of benefits or the state pension need to be repaid, and are taken in deductions over the following months. 

If the person is no longer receiving a particular benefit, they are usually invoiced for the excess sum or asked to sign up to an instalment payment plan. You were most grateful for my help.

• Write to Sally Hamilton at Sally Sorts It, Money Mail, Northcliffe House, 2 Derry Street, London W8 5TT or email sally@dailymail.co.uk  include phone number, address and a note addressed to the offending organisation giving them permission to talk to Sally Hamilton. Please do not send original documents as we cannot take responsibility for them. No legal responsibility can be accepted by the Daily Mail for answers given.