Banks still blaming customers for being scammed: Consumer group

A culture of blaming scam victims for losing lifechanging sums appears to be the norm for some banks, says Which?

The consumer group is calling for action to protect victims of scams where they are tricked into transferring money directly to a fraudster.

It said firms are regularly pointing the finger at customers to avoid giving a refund.

Which? said the regulator shows banks signed up to an industry code on transfer fraud hold victims fully or partly responsible for scams up to 77% of the time.

Victims were held fully responsible for 60% of payments while 17% of the blame was shared between the customer and either the bank sending or receiving the money, or between the banks.

The authorised push payment (APP) scam code was designed to ensure victims of bank transfer scams are reimbursed for losses when neither they nor the bank is at fault.

But the overall reimbursement rate is low and varies between banks, Which? said.

Customers in need of support can face a grilling from banks, it added.

It said cases handled by the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), as well as those probed by Which?, show banks are often getting decisions wrong.

The consumer group is calling for all banks to publish data, including reimbursement rates.

Which? said one of its members lost £65,000 to fraudsters claiming to represent an investment firm. He later discovered the website was a clone.

Halifax returned £30,000 but said he failed to make full checks. The bank refunded the rest when Which? stepped in.

Gareth Shaw, head of money at Which?, said: “This latest damning evidence suggests victimblaming is simply the norm for some banks.

“It’s clear a voluntary code is not enough to protect victims who can lose life-changing sums of money and the current system lets banks benefit from a cloak of anonymity when they report their reimbursement rates.”

Debbie Enever of the FOS said: “We continue to see hundreds of complaints a week.

“If you think you’ve been treated unfairly by your bank, you should get in contact with us.”

“It’s

clear a voluntary code is not enough