Bank handed cash over to fraudster

A BANK handed over £4,300 from a Totnes woman’s account to a fraudster despite the thief failing to answer security questions correctly – then refused to give her the money back for more than a year.

Charlotte Higman lost thousands from her account and says Royal Bank of Scotland failed to pick up on errors in the security process before giving her money to a thief.

A recording of the phone call to RBS released to BBC Watchdog Live found the woman couldn’t even tell the bank what Mrs Higman’s job is while pretending to be her.

The bank still handed over £4,318 and only raised con- cerns when the woman rang back asking for more money.

The fraud began when a woman called RBS claiming to be Mrs Higman and asked for her account security to be reset.

RBS staff called ‘Charlotte’ back on her landline, which had been diverted to a mobile phone. Despite the caller being unable to answer all questions the security was reset and the money was transferred.

The bank said Mrs Higman must have known about the transaction as the fraud had diverted calls from her home phone number, but later backed down and issued a belated apology and promised to refund her loss in full.