“national security threat”, with a total of £754 million stolen from bank customers during the first half of this year, amounting a 30 per cent increase from a year earlier. Against such a background, the official complaints body of the country’s financial sector is calling on banks to do more to treat victims of scams more fairly.
According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, while there was a 66 per cent increase in the number of people asking for help with fraud, during the second quarter of this year, in the case of complaints that were made regarding banks and other financial service providers refusing to refund money lost through scams, 75 per cent of them were upheld in favour of the customer. A spokesperson for the complaints body noted that these figures suggest that banks and other financial institutions “need to do more”, to resolve such complaints of their customers in a just and equitable manner before they are forced to seek help from the Ombudsman Service.
Last month, London-based Consumer group Which? revealed that victims of fraud offences in the UK are “feeling abandoned”, as the country’s biggest banks are failing to properly assist them at a time of crisis.
Following a survey which was conducted with the participation of more than 400 people who had been victims of fraud or attempted fraud over the past year, the organisation found that 17 per cent of them were unsatisfied with how their bank had managed the incident, while 15 per cent said they had waited 30 minutes or more to get in touch with someone at their bank via phone or webchat. In the most extreme cases, such delays not only cost thousands of pounds as fraudsters continued to empty accounts, but also left the customer with an enormous phone bill.
Considering these figures the consumer group called for the establishment of a mandatory reimbursement scheme in order to ensure customers are protected against bank transfer fraud, while also strengthening enforcement against financial service providers that break the rules.
