The Government has been under pressure to introduce new legislation for the long-term and figure out a sustainable funding solution, something which has slipped down the agenda with the impact of Covid.
There have been calls for more consistent application of the scheme by banks, and for banks to focus on preventing scams happening in the first place, from the Lending Standards Board (LSB), which oversees the code.įurthermore, the code includes a pot of cash available to compensate “no-blame” cases but this is an interim funding measure, that has been extended three times, and now runs until the end of June 2021. Fraudsters are increasingly using sophisticated techniques including telephone number “spoofing”, where the caller ID is modified to mimic the number of a real company or authority.Īlmost £208m was lost to APP fraud in the first six months of last year and of this £73.1m was refunded to customers – only a third of cases, according to banking trade body UK Finance.Ī voluntary code was launched in May 2019 that sets out standards for banks to follow regarding APP scams. Calls for better customer protectionĬlaire fell prey to what’s known as authorised push payment (APP) fraud, where customers are tricked into making payments to criminals. HSBC declined to comment due to the ongoing Financial Ombudsman investigation. Halifax said Mrs Baldwin did not take appropriate steps to verify that the caller was genuine, but nevertheless refunded half the money. A spokesperson said: “Helping keep our customers’ money safe is our priority and we have a great deal of sympathy for Mrs Baldwin as the victim of a scam.” I said to HSBC, ‘how do I eat? How do I pay the bills?'” “I was told it was a scam and I felt sick,” she said.Ĭlaire is now pursuing a complaint through the Financial Ombudsman. “This has left me penniless until my next pay day weeks away. She had been told she would be called back to set up online banking for her “new” account, but meanwhile she called HSBC to check the legitimacy of the call. The fraudster convinced Claire any bank accounts accessed through her phone were vulnerable and talked her into moving her Halifax money. And a message that appeared to be from HSBC did immediately ping though. While they were on the phone, the con man said a fraudulent attempt had been made for a payment of £849 to Argos and he said a warning text would shortly come through from the bank. “The number he was calling on was almost the same as the official number on my card, it was one digit out and he said the number he was calling on was the outgoing line and the one on the card the incoming number.” I said to HSBC, how do I eat? How do I pay the bills?Ĭlaire did question how she could know he was a genuine HSBC employee, and he asked her to check the back of her bank card. This has left me penniless until my next pay day weeks away.
“He talked me through every step I needed to take and pre-empted every screen that I was going to come across on the app and sounded so professional.” He asked ‘have you made any payments recently that you’ve been suspicious about?’ And I told him about the Royal Mail text and he said you’ve been scammed and your account has been compromised. “He sounded official and went through security. “It asked me to pay £2.70 and I did think that it was suspicious it asked for my bank details but I thought there isn’t much someone could do with my bank account number and sort code, and in worst case scenario I’ve lost £2.70.”Ī few days later the scammer called. “It got me because it said I’d had a missed delivery at 17.17 and I had just gone for a walk with my husband then. ‘Convincing’ fraudster Claire Baldwin was told by HSBC that they will not refund her money(Photo: Claire Baldwin)Ĭlaire, from Sussex, received the scam text on 1 February and had been waiting on various deliveries ahead of her stepson’s 21st birthday when she entered in her bank account details into the fake website. But she says HSBC have said they will not refund any of the £5,100 stolen from her accounts with them.
She received half of the £2,595 robbed from her Halifax account back.