Victory for Mail as banks vow to refund savers hit by scammers

frAUD victims conned into transferring their cash to criminals will now get a refund from Britain’s biggest banks.

in a victory for the Mail, savers’ nest eggs will be protected under a new code which came into effect yesterday.

it is backed by major lenders including the so-called Big four – Barclays, Lloyds, HsBC and Natwest owner royal Bank of scotland.

it comes after the Mail’s stop the Bank scammers campaign highlighted how the current accounts of ordinary people are being emptied by conmen in a fraud epidemic.

A total of £354 million was lost last year by 85,000 people in a wave of socalled authorised push payment (APP) scams. these happen when a persuades a customer to transfer their money.

the crooks often pretend to be police officers or bank staff, and claim their target needs to move funds into a new, safer account. the scammer then disappears with the cash.

Until now, victims have had no automatic right to compensation, because the banks claimed it was their own fault for giving the money away.

But many of the largest lenders have done a U-turn after pressure to do the right thing.

the new code states that victims will get a refund in most cases. the only exceptions will be if they ignored warnings, failed to take proper care or were negligent.

ruth Evans, chairman of the APP scams steering Group which wrote the new rules, said: ‘this marks a watershed in delivering increased protections for consumers from authorised push payment scams.

‘for the first time, any victim who is a customer of a signatory firm will be fully refunded, as long as they meet the standards expected of them.

‘for far too long these scams have caused havoc to consumfraudster ers’ lives. they can have a devastating impact, causing hardship and distress to victims that can lose anything from a few pounds, to the whole of their life’s savings.’

Other lenders to have signed up include santander, Nationwide, Metro Bank and onlineonly firm starling. together they cover the majority of Britain’s customers, with the Big four alone covering more than three quarters of the current account market.

tsB has gone a step further with its own pledge to refund fraud victims in an even wider variety of cases.

Justin Modray, of consumer group Candid Money, said: this is undoubtedly good news for consumers, and an important bit of protection. Of course, customers must still be vigilant to try to avoid getting scammed.’

A handful of major lenders have not signed up, including CYBG, the owner of Virgin Money and Yorkshire Bank, which has 6.4 million customers; tesco Bank, which has almost 6 million; and the Co-op Bank, with 1.3 million.

CYBG, tesco and the Co-op said they were planning to sign up shortly but were getting final preparations in place, such as training staff and updating it systems.

Details of how the scheme will be funded in the long-term are still being agreed, but the biggest lenders have pledged to provide enough cash for now.