Banks shamed over net fraud

BANKS are failing to help the victims of online fraud – and shirking responsibility for tackling the £10billion-a-year crime, MPs say.

In a damning report, they demanded financial institutions ‘step up’ to deal with the issue, which causes ‘untold misery’ for those affected.

Banks were ‘unwilling to share information’ about fraud with customers, the MPs noted, adding: ‘The balance needs to be tipped in favour of the customer.’ They must find more effective ways to fight fraud and be held responsible for returning money to customers who fall victim to scams, the report said.

The public accounts committee revealed online fraud in England and Wales last year cost an estimated £10billion. But only 0 per cent of fraud is thought to be reported.

The MPs’ report said the Home Office response was ‘too slow’ and the approach by police ‘inconsistent’. But most of its criticism was reserved for banks. It said they do not accept enough responsibility for reducing fraud as the industry is not required to give data about individual institutions.

This means customers do not know which banks are best at protecting them from online fraud.

‘Banks are not doing enough…their response has not been proportionate to the scale of the problem,’ the report said. ‘Banks need to take more responsibility and … work on information sharing so customers are offered more protection,’ it continued.

The report also said the Home Office must ‘ensure banks are committed to developing more effective ways of tackling card-not-present fraud…held to account for this and for returning money to customers who have been victims of scams’.