Bank customer lose thousands of pounds to scams

The scams where the fraudsters tricked bank customers to pay out of their accounts increased 45 percent in the second half of 2018, which led to the losses of tens of thousands of pounds. Overall 84,000 people lost money in the whole year. There has been a change in the way scammers are conducting their businesses, where they are pursuing account holders, instead of targeting the institution, because the banks are exposing such scams.

Many financial institutions are alert and have been adopting measures to prevent such attacks. There has been an increase in documentation of case with the increase in scams. Overall £74 million suspicious transfers were authorized by staffs where the money was given for nonexistent goods or for some kind of payments. The scams were, sometimes, conducted online where the payment for a car or holiday was asked to be made but the buyers never received the services for the payments.

In the first six months of 2018, such account holders lost up to £93m, and in the second half, 135m was lost where the money was moved with the consent of the account holder.

Scammers contacting customers

These are the ‘Purchase scams’, where 3,866 cases of impersonation were reported, and the criminals claimed to be from a financial institution or a law firm and tricked the holder to make payment. Fraud companies send their representatives or make a call or send an email, and claim to be from the authorities, police or an authorized government financial institution.

The criminals could access the emails of the solicitors handling builders or home sales, and then they would send invoices to the customers and call to get instant payment. In most such cases, the customers are held for authorizing the payments and paying the bills. In 2017, APP scams led to a loss of £101 million, and in 2018, such scams increased £44 million where four more banks reported about it.

In 2018, the banks had reimbursed £83m losses, but now the total bill is £354m (individuals & businesses). A new voluntary code has been proposed where the victims will be refunded if they had met the expected standard, and it will be applicable from 28 May, but, even in such conditions, the banks can refuse to pay if they prove negligence from the customer side.

Push payment frauds advisory

Advisory has been offered against such Push Payment frauds where the customers are asked to adopt safety measures and not disclose PIN, or the full banking passwords. They are asked to not to assume the text, emails or phone calls for financial transactions authentic, and avoid rushing into making payments online. The advisory states - Any genuine organization will never ask for a full password or PIN, to make payments into the account. The managing director for economic crime Katy Worobec stated - the figures are considered to be a major threat as the proceeds go towards funding terrorism and drug trafficking, while, many are losing life-long savings to such crooks.

To find out more about investment scams, check 99 Alternatives at (http://www.99alternatives.com).

Date Published: Apr 22, 2019

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