Daily Mail

Time for phone firms to act

- By Victoria Bischoff v.bischoff@dailymail.co.uk

DOZENS of fraud victims have come forward to bravely share their stories since the Mail last week launched its campaign to stop bank scammers.

Every account is heartbreak­ing, with people being duped into handing over a lifetime of savings put aside for house deposits, weddings or retirement.

But, as we highlight on pages 31 and 32, what’s striking is how often victims are caught out by a so- called spoof text message or phone call.

Again and again, they say they believed a text really was from their bank because it appeared in the same chain of messages as previous genuine ones.

Or they were convinced that they really were speaking to their bank as the number matched the one on its website.

So why won’t telecoms giants do more to stop scam texts and calls getting through?

We’ve known about spoof texts and calls for years — yet we don’t seem to be any further along when it comes to blocking them. And why haven’t banks just introduced a blanket ban on including telephone numbers in text messages so there is no confusion among customers as to whether they should trust them?

If we are to have a chance at winning the war on fraud, we need every industry involved — banks, telecoms companies, regulators and the Government.

Last week, a new code of conduct was proposed to help prevent customers from transferri­ng their money to fraudsters.

It was a major step forward, with banks promising to introduce new alerts that warn the customers they believe may be at risk. But a huge amount still needs to be done.

In the meantime, victims should not be left out of pocket when they’ve done nothing wrong.

Banks agree as much — but they refuse to foot the bill.

And while they dilly-dally about thinking up other ways to fund a compensati­on scheme, it’s the victims who continue to pay.

On Monday, the City watchdog fined tesco Bank £16.4 million over a cyber attack that allowed criminals to steal millions of pounds from its customers.

If similar sanctions were imposed on banks for letting criminals open accounts or failing to act swiftly enough when customers report fraud, you can bet your life they’d take action in no time.

It’s clear that banks cannot win the fight against fraud on their own — but we’ll be watching closely to ensure they are not let off the hook.

A mutual friend?

WHAT’S going on at Nationwide? Since July, Britain’s biggest building society has revealed plans to scale back telephone banking, scrapped a vital paper statement sent to seven million savers and — as we expose today on page 33 — is now hiking the cost of spending abroad.

As a mutual, Nationwide is supposed to be driven by the desire to put its members first.

But, while the building society might chant the mantra ‘on your side’, the only thinking behind these changes is to boost its own bottom line.

As one Money Mail reader put it this week, these steps have put Nationwide ‘ on the road to becoming just another hard-nosed banking business’. he added that since Joe Garner took over as chief executive in 2016, ‘there has been a gradual slide towards being just another bank on pay and perks for CEOs and deteriorat­ing customers’ returns’.

And it’s true. the building society dished out £6.5 million to its bosses last year. Mr Garner alone took home £2.3 million. Meanwhile, its customers are losing out.

Nationwide claims that its goal is to become a ‘ national treasure’, akin to the NHS and the National trust.

If that’s the case, it needs to start looking after its reputation as an exemplar of good practice.

Because, as many once-loved banks can testify, when trust is gone, it is very hard to win back.

My budget wish

THIS year’s Budget has been set for Monday, October 29. the Chancellor Philip hammond has already hinted at tax hikes for all.

But my heart is set on a rabbit out of the hat for all savers — regardless of age or income. If you had one wish, what would it be?

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