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mmm

(edited 7 months ago)

There's no way to dress this up nicely.

You need to go to your Lloyds branch ASAP, as they have instructed. Don't lie, because that will make things worse than they are and there's some facts already in evidence, like you trying to make a dubious transfer and giving out your bank details. You are in serious danger of a Cifas marker and losing access to any type of bank account, including the new Barclays one.

Direct Debits are payments to an organisation for goods and services; if they're legit, why would you be able to get them refunded? Did you check what was in your account before trying to make the transfer? If the £400 did go in, it's money laundering. There were far better options than giving control of your bank account to some online stranger.