Why should banks have to refund?

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 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.

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'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.

"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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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 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.

There was a case on TV some time ago, about an elderly man who had been sending money to a person who had sent him a picture of a beautiful woman saying it was her. Somehow a programme about scams got involved. They could not persuade this man that it was a scam. They even contacted the woman whose photo it was. She Facetimed him and told him it wasn't her. He still wasn't convinced.

Another system that’s failed is my voice is my password
Santander and Halifax failed the test which the bbc did with a cloned voice.

Tizliz

Re ppi, our business was struggling and took out a loan with our bank. Was told by the manager I had to take out an insurance. I questioned this as we already had a policy but he made it clear it was compulsory. It was clear mis-selling.

Yes, and people in that position should absolutely be compensated. It’s coercion, and the insurers should be penalised.

There are 6 ladies that meet up every month for a catch up.
One of these was widowed (68) before COVID. Last year she mentioned
that she had been chatting on-line to David (29)from Spain.
We advised her to be wary and never send him any money.
David then moved to Brazil and asked her to visit. If she would send
the money for her flight he'd get it cheaper than what you pay in the UK.
Again we advised don't do that. It got very serious between them.
One of the other ladies is very good at computers and tried to search for him.
His photo was on different sites with different names.
She still insisted that he was a genuine person.
£135000 later the bank had warned her, we warned her, the family had warned her.
Now she has finally realised he is a scammer.
You can't help stupid people.

I do understand that people can get lonely, desperate, flattered. Walk a mile in someone else's shoes and all that. I am fortunate that I have never been in that position. However, I think I know myself well enough to know that I would never, ever give anyone my money. If a handsome young man contacted 75 year old me expressing his love, I would suggest he saw a doctor. Also, I have mirrors in my house. I'm not saying I would never get scammed. It can happen to anyone but in my case it wouldn't be a romance scam.

There's no fool like an old fool.

The speaker from actionfraud told us that romance fraud was very common as are scams from people who `befriend` via a common-interest group eg a craft group ie become friends and then the scam is set-up

I too agree given the circumstances. Foolish woman

Whenever I start a transaction to make a payment online from. my account the banking system has an alert in place asking if the recipient might me a scammer, ami sue I wish to proceed with the transaction etc.
I am confident that my bank has criteria in place to monitor dubious payments to suspicious individuals.

Must say I have to agree. I once saw a woman on TV, not elderly and apparently reasonably intelligent, who not only sent all her savings to one of these ‘romance scam’ men, but then took out a bank loan for another £10k to send him. The bank asked (as is usual now) what she wanted the money for, and she told them.
They advised her very strongly that it was almost certainly a scam, but she refused to believe them and sent it anyway. I fail to see why a refund would be due in such circs.

Not long ago some close and very longstanding friends of ours who were moving, asked for a fairly substantial loan from us, for a bridging loan.

Dh was questioned quite exhaustively by our bank before making the transfer, but obviously they couldn’t have stopped him. (As we knew it would be, the money was soon repaid BTW, in case anyone’s wondering!)

Jackiest

www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cq8vnq1eq3po

But I do feel that the scammer should get more than a suspended prison sentence.

I read this article, so sad but unfortunately greed played a big part on this.

Sago

It always astonishes me how stupid these people are, to give money to someone whom you have never met!
To have not heard of these scams you must have been living under a rock.

I do not think in these circumstances compensation should be given.

A fool and his money…………

So many very vulnerable people, male and female, are caught up in romance scams.

They are normally recently made alone by death or break ups, they can be targeted via many different sites, not just dating websites.

I too find it so disturbing people are still “caught out” and cannot ever ever imagine being taken in, but then again I’m happily married, surrounded by our children and friends and have a good social life.

Loneliness and grief can make people react in ways they wouldn’t normally.

In my opinion, romance scammers are utter scum!