‘Banks won’t act over our £113,700 fraud loss’

As watchdog admits to an epidemic of ‘transfer fraud’, banks do nothing to help the victims. By Amelia Murray

Amother and daughter from Kent have told Telegraph Money of their horror at discovering they had been tricked into sending £113,665 to a criminal – instead of to a solicitor who was dealing with their home purchase.

The fraud was discovered only a fortnight ago and Nikki and Jill Douthwaite – along with their six cats and two dogs – are now living with friends. They cannot buy the £182,000 Cambridgeshire bungalow they were expecting to move into.

Within days of their shocking discovery Britain’s payments watchdog – the Payment Systems Regulator – finally addressed the widespread problem of “transfer fraud” in a long-awaited report that set out tentative proposals to help victims such as the Douthwaites. But the proposals, which are unlikely to be mandatory or retrospective, were quickly condemned as being “too little, too late”. Even if they were in force today it is unlikely ly they would assist in cases like the Douthwaites’, experts said. d.

Transfer fraud, which banks sometimes refer to o as “push payment scams”, ”, usually involve the victim m being tricked either over the phone or through email mail interception into making g payments to the accounts of criminals.

Because the victims authorised the payments, the banks involved claim no liability. As much as £100m was lost through such fraud request attemp Barcl receiv frau su Santa befor follo ema £50 tran

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Hacked: Agi Gamski was scammed out of £74,000 when her company’s email was breached. See page 3