online purchases made from stolen cards, the debit or credit card provider should refund the victim unless it is proven that they had acted fraudulent or had been grossly negligent. However, in the case of a victim who has been tricked to sending money to a scammer, some major banks have set up a voluntary reimbursement code on such scams. Yet, many customers are not refunded or are given back only 50 per cent of their money.
Therefore, Which? is calling for the establishment of a mandatory reimbursement scheme, instead of the voluntary code, in order to ensure customers are protected against bank transfer fraud, while also strengthening enforcement against financial service providers that break the rules. However, not all firms agree with this strategy, which they say would leave them vulnerable. According to a spokesperson for UK Finance, a trade association for the country’s banking and financial services sector, since the voluntary code was introduced in May 2019 a total of £188.3 million has been reimbursed to thousands of victims.
“[…] we agree that more needs to be done and we firmly believe that a regulated code, backed by legislation, is the most effective answer so that consumer protections apply consistently across the banking industry,” the spokesperson noted. “At the same time, it’s vital that the government and regulators acknowledge how vulnerabilities in other sectors such as telecoms and online platforms are facilitating these crimes and consider an overall strategy to protect consumers from fraud.”
