New call for action to protect bank scam victims

Consumer campaigners have called on banks to stop leaving scam-victim customers in the lurch.

Which? says a culture of blaming victims for losing life-changing sums of cash appears to be the norm for some banks and is calling for urgent action to protect customers who are tricked into transferring money to fraudsters.

It says firms are regularly pointing the finger of blame at customers to avoid giving them a refund, even though many crimes are highly sophisticated.

The authorised push payment (APP) scam code was designed to ensure victims of transfer scams are reimbursed when neither they nor their bank is at fault but the overall reimbursement rate is lowandvariessignificantlybetween individual banks.

It is calling for all banks to be required to publish data, including reimbursement rates.

Gareth Shaw, head of money at Which?, said: "This latest damning evidence suggests victim-blaming is simply the norm for some banks and it is clear a voluntary code is not enough to protect victims who can lose life-changing sums of money.Thecurrentsystemlets banks benefit from a cloak of anonymity over reimbursement rates."

Debbie Enever, head of external relations at the Financial Ombudsman Service, said: “Anyone who thinks they've been treated unfairly byabank,shouldgetincontact with our service and we'll see if we can help."

A spokeswoman for trade association UK Finance said: “We are calling for new legislationandregulationtohelppreventpeoplefromfallingvictim to APP fraud and ensure consumer protections apply consistently across the banking industry.”