Why should banks have to refund?

I don’t know if anyone here has an alert on the land register.
The cases of houses being stolen is on the increase.
This applies particularly to leave a property for lengths of time.
What the alert does is contact you if someone is searching your property.

I’ve never been scammed, but I do talk to people online.

So, I’d guess, that as a widowed pensioner, I’d be a target market for would-be scammers.

The golden rule is to never talk about money. It’s irrelevant if something is supposed to be a romance or whatever. No one needs to know if someone owns a house or has savings.

No one can possibly know anyone properly until you know them in real life. Until then it’s just an online friendship.

I met my late husband by a fluke, online (not a dating app), and we were together for 23 years, but money wasn’t mentioned until we got together as a real life couple. No need.

I’m amazed, despite all the publicity, that people still fall for this nonsense.🤷‍♀️

So, no, the banks shouldn’t have to refund the stupidity of others,

I am afraid I am one of those who feels if more people were left to suffer the results of their own stupidity, fewer people would be stupid.

This applies to things like romance scams, not the situations where people get refunds from their supposedly reputable bank or insurance company, which has overcharged them on insurance or insisted their bought insurance or other scam of that nature.

Read the financial pages of any national newspaper and you will hear sad stories of people cold called and persuaded to invest money in wine, art, special bonds and all sorts of things. Nobody should ever buy anything from anyone who cold calls them, by phone, by letter, on the doorstep.

We have known that for 50 years or more and yet again and again people ignore all the warning they have heard all their lives, sayings like 'you get owt for n'owt' or 'if it sounds too good to be true it is too good to be true.' Sayings that have been around for so long, no one knows when they originated.

Yet again and again people get greedy. I think if people fall for these cons when there is no reason why they should not have known better, then they should be left to suffer the results of their own actions.

Romance scams affect men the same way, as soon as money is mentioned block the caller, there are plenty of warnings everywhere. My bank has a scam warning everytime I open it online.
Scams are getting evermore cleverer be on your guard

Allira

I agree with you.

I've noticed that every time I go to make a transaction online now, a message pops up asking if i am sure and warning me it could be a scam.
Fair enough, I recently had to make a large transaction by debit card as it was above my credit card limit and the credit card company refused to increase my limit even on a temporary basis (seems to be a common occurrence).
Since then the warnings have appeared.

However, it seems your friend ignored all warnings so no, others should not have to pay for her foolishness.

Yes I get them when sending money to family. I tend to send money rather than buying presents as they are hard to buy for and I have run out of ideas so money seems a good idea but it is always questioned. Well I don't think it is if I'm sending a GC a tenner or something. Not sure if it is activated above a certain amount.

petra

I don’t know if anyone here has an alert on the land register.
The cases of houses being stolen is on the increase.
This applies particularly to leave a property for lengths of time.
What the alert does is contact you if someone is searching your property.

Yes I've got one, I think they send me an update every 3 months. I always have a bit of a panic before I open the message and all is OK.

The other thing I have is a code word so if I get one of those messages about I've lost my phone and am stranded please send money as I've borrowed this phone I can check if it is one of them. I had it happen once and in a panic about my poor stranded child I almost sent the money and then stopped myself and phoned said child who fortunately was in a position to answer the phone straight away. I think that's the closest I've come to being scammed on line. I can't say the same about a builder who charged a lot and did a bad job but I think that is harder to protect against. He had fabulous posts on CheckaTrade or one of those sites.

David49

Romance scams affect men the same way, as soon as money is mentioned block the caller, there are plenty of warnings everywhere. My bank has a scam warning everytime I open it online.
Scams are getting evermore cleverer be on your guard

I agree with you. The only people I need to ever discuss finances with is my bank. Not someone I’ve never met. 🙄

If I try to send money to even trusted sources, over a certain amount, I have to do 2 factor verification.

But, yes, I’m sure men are affected as well.

I had a bank transfer stopped and had to through a 20 min plus phone call with the fraud section before it was allowed to go through. Normally I think this is a good thing and although questions are a bit annoying and more or less repeatedly asking the same thing in a different way BUT in this case the payment was around £500 and to a builder with his occupation in the title and he was already listed as one of my payees and several payments made over the last 10 years. I saw no reason why this particular payment should have caused a problem.

"In my opinion, romance scammers are utter scum!"
Karmalady ........You got it.
Kate 1949
"If a handsome young man contacted 75 year old me expressing his love, I would suggest he saw a doctor. "
🤣🤣🤣

What the Bank is doing is probably reasonable in these particular circumstances but I do feel sorry for people who get tricked like this.
It baffles me , particularly when people send money to someone that they have never met in person.
Ther's a special place in hell for these people.

I've just had a scam call about a car accident I supposedly had in the last two years 🤔
I did ask who it was but he gabbled the reply; when I said No, not true, he went on to tell me that the person who hit my car has informed his insurance company and I am entitled to compensation.
Whatever next.

I registered with Land Registry to get an alert. Very easy to do

My husband worked with a teenager in care who sold his sister's house without her knowledge ( he had already bluffed people into believing he was a salesman, a CEO etc) and spent the money. There was something on TV this morning to warn people that the selling of another person's house without their permission is a civil and not a criminal matter. So you have to employ a solicitor - what happens if your home and bank accounts have been stolen ?

I registered with Land Registry to get an alert. Very easy to do

Thank you for the tip, I'll investigate. It is something I'd heard of a while ago, it does sound unbelievable that this could happen.

knspol

I had a bank transfer stopped and had to through a 20 min plus phone call with the fraud section before it was allowed to go through. Normally I think this is a good thing and although questions are a bit annoying and more or less repeatedly asking the same thing in a different way BUT in this case the payment was around £500 and to a builder with his occupation in the title and he was already listed as one of my payees and several payments made over the last 10 years. I saw no reason why this particular payment should have caused a problem.

I can sympathise. As I had an automated voice phonecall only this morning saying "We're your bank......". Cue for I slammed the phone straight down - thinking "Agh - thieves again...".

I bought an item on my credit card (from a shop back in home area I've bought from before), then I tried to buy something from Amazon and my "card was declined". Cue for phonecall to Amazon (they never did call me back as promised!!!). Cue for a couple of phonecalls with the shop - as I finally realised it was something to do with them that this had happened (ie someone thought "Different area to Cariad" and hadn't bothered to check that that is MY area (I just don't live there anymore - but my bank account is still based there....just a slight clue I do both areas and not just my current one....duh). Cue for phonecall with my bank and possibly that call from my bank really was from my bank (think he probably realised that a combination of "No I cant give my banking password - as I dont do online banking" and perhaps a look at my date of birth I'd given him (early 1950's) and he realised there was no point in asking me for any further info. I would not be able to provide. Thank goodness for someone with a bit of commonsense.

Left thinking " 'Scuse me everyone - some of us still do things the way we're used to. You can do them your way - but we will continue to do them our way. Each to their own".

That was a worrying few hours - where I'm getting them asking me to do things I can't do (like give them a mobile phone number - I don't have one), that banking password for online banking (I don't have one).

It really would help if they all just readily accepted that there's two basic ways to do things - and we're entitled to keep doing things our way (if that's what we want).

I am suspicious by nature and when I received an email from Amex, alerting me to a potential fraud on my credit card and to call This number.
I didn't call the number, but did call the phone number on the back of my credit card.

The first thing the agent said was: Are you calling about the fraudulent use of your credit card in New York, to buy porn movies.
😱

These checks do have a place in banking.

On the other hand- a good friend of ours who was disabled went to Thailand for a holiday and came back with a wife! We really thought the worst but they were married for 20 years. She was really good to him.

I am not really active on FB, I use it for community pages so I was quite surprised to get a friend request from the very handsome John.

I obviously knew it was a scam so I gave him answers that would lead him on.

He was an American “surgery doctor” in Syria🤣.

Here is a screenshot of our short lived online romance.

LOL Sago - good response.

His language was a bit of a give-away too - ie not quite English/not quite American - more like the phrasing of someone who has learnt English (but it's not their own language).

Marydoll

I am suspicious by nature and when I received an email from Amex, alerting me to a potential fraud on my credit card and to call This number.
I didn't call the number, but did call the phone number on the back of my credit card.

The first thing the agent said was: Are you calling about the fraudulent use of your credit card in New York, to buy porn movies.
😱

These checks do have a place in banking.

Now that made sense there - a. As you're a woman (so chances are that bit less likely to buy porn movies) b. It's a different country.

Must just be thankful they didn't start checking unnecessarily when I've had visits back to Exeter - as every so often there'll be a stream of purchases I've just made back in Exeter spanning some days (though at least I could get at my own branch of my bank very easily by just walking into the Exeter branch and saying "Hiya - I'm back on a visit"). But I guess they aren't very up on their geography - as Totnes is not that far from Exeter (ie the shop I had just bought something from). So a very good chance it was really me....I may be wrong but I doubt thieves are very likely to buy clothing from an eco shop....

Never get scam calls. I think it’s because about 5 years ago I bought a loud whistle, and used it 😂
My number was taken off the lists.

petra

Never get scam calls. I think it’s because about 5 years ago I bought a loud whistle, and used it 😂
My number was taken off the lists.

Oh yes!
I had one because we had a few weird pervy calls years ago. Must try to find it.

Now that made sense there - a. As you're a woman (so chances are that bit less likely to buy porn movies) b. It's a different country.,
Cariad, now if it had been TJMaxx in New York, that would have been a different matter.

petra

Never get scam calls. I think it’s because about 5 years ago I bought a loud whistle, and used it 😂
My number was taken off the lists.

👏👏👏

But so many of these scam calls are just so laughably obvious.

I got a call this week where someone said '^This your bank calling, there have been two suspicious operations on your account (which were then listed). Please ring this number to confirm or deny these transactions^'

No bank named, no details of bank account etc, it was laughable - and I did.

Generally we rarely get these calls, but my other tactic is to ask them, which of my banks they are ringing from. We have acounts with sevral banks - and if we didn't , it is still a good question.

I just don’t answer my mobile to unknown numbers, if it’s important, they leave a message.
No, in the instance from the OP, I don’t think the bank has any liability.