Around £28,000 is being lost every hour typically to scams where people are tricked into making bank transfers to fraudsters, according to Which?
A voluntary reimbursement code on such bank transfer scams, also known as authorised push payment (APP) fraud, was introduced in May 2019, and many banks have signed up. It instructs them to reimburse all customers who are not at fault and provide them with adequate support.
Which?’s analysis of trade association UK Finance figures found that between July 2019 and the end of June 2021 a total of £854 million was lost across 306,573 cases of APP fraud. But £495 million was not reimbursed, Which? said, with customers shouldering net losses at a rate of £4.7 million a week, £676,881 a day or £28,203 a hour.
A “reimbursement lottery” leaves victims facing an uphill struggle to recover their money, as the code has been applied inconsistently and often wrongly by many firms, Which? said. The consumer group said it had heard from countless victims who claim they have been treated unfairly.
In one example, a Santander customer in his 80s was left more than £3,600 out of pocket after falling victim to an impersonation scam on WhatsApp. The scammer posed as his son on the messaging service before tricking the victim into transferring money into an account to supposedly help pay for a bill.
The bank initially refused to make any reimbursement, Which? said. It added that after it helped the victim…
