When crime doesn’t pay
HAVE YOU BEEN A VICTIM OF BANK FRAUD? THE RIGHT TO A REFUND VARIES DEPENDING ON HOW YOU LOST THE MONEY, VICKY SHAW REPORTS
IF you lost money to a fraud, would you expect to get your cash back? RBS chief executive Ross McEwan was recently reported as cautioning that victims of bank fraud shouldn’t expect automatic refunds, highlighting the duty of care consumers have over their own actions.
So, generally, when might you get your money back, and when could your cash disappear for ever?
PAYMENT SAFETY NETS
PEOPLE’S rights vary depending on how they lost money.
Consumer group Which? says people accidentally paying a scammer using their credit card have protections under the Consumer Credit Act, which allows them to get their money back for transactions between £100 and £30,000.
With debit cards, you may be able to get your money back through the voluntary chargeback scheme with your bank.
If a payment is made to a scammer through an authorised direct debit payment, you’re covered by the Direct Debit Guarantee, meaning you could potentially have the payment reversed.
CHECK BEFORE YOU CLICK
WHEN it comes to bank transfers, there’s a difference between unauthorised and authorised transfers. With the latter, it could be more difficult to get your money back – as the bank has transferred the money on the customer’s instructions. This makes it vital to check before you click the payment button.
Authorised transfer fraud happens when someone is tricked into moving money from their own bank account directly into that of a fraudster.
By contrast, with unauthorised transfers, the fraudster accesses someone’s account without their knowledge and transfers money. In these cases, the bank is generally required to reimburse its customer.
Katy Worobec, head of fraud and financial crime prevention, cyber and data sharing at trade association UK Finance, says banks take fraud extremely seriously and continually invest millions in advanced security systems.
“Banks are legally obliged to fulfil a customer’s request to transfer money within one working day even if they have warned the customer they are at risk of a potential scam,” she says.
“All banks will act swiftly to recover stolen funds as soon as they are alerted to fraud taking place. Customers rightly expect banks to carry out transactions they have authorised and in such cases banks will provide compensation on a case-by-case basis.
“Where a customer has not authorised a transaction, they will normally receive a refund.”
She says victims of scams should contact their bank immediately.
But Which? argues financial firms could do more to shoulder the burden when people are tricked into transferring cash to a fraudster. It made a super-complaint to financial regulators about the issue last year.
Gareth Shaw, Which? money expert, says: “Banks are still placing too much responsibility on consumers to spot and protect themselves from sophisticated online scams.
“We’ve heard from many people who have lost life-changing amounts of money through bank transfer fraud, through no fault of their own, who are unlikely to get their money back from the banks involved and who have seen little action to help them.”
He warns: “If the account holder has been tricked into making a bank transfer themselves to a fraudster’s account, even if they can show they have been a victim of a scam, there are fewer legal protections in place and the bank or building society is not obliged to refund the victim.”
WHAT IF YOU CAN’T AGREE WITH YOUR FINANCIAL FIRM?
WHICH? suggests that if your bank is disputing you’ve been a victim of fraud, you can ask for your claim to be escalated through its internal complaints process.
If your bank has made up its mind, you could ask to be issued with a final letter of deadlock and then refer your claim to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which resolves disputes between consumers and financial firms. Which? has a template letter of deadlock request at tiny.cc/ WhichLetterDeadlock
HOW TO AVOID SCAMS
COMMON warning signs include unexpected emails or calls, being put under pressure to act quickly and being asked for personal details. If in doubt, put the phone down.
And everyone can do their bit, by not sharing passwords and pins with anyone else, checking statements regularly and reporting fraud immediately to banks and the police.