MSE News: Santander refuses to refund pensioner tricked out of £40,000 life savings

Pincher

It is not a good thing to have a sharp knife, if you are not a chef.

I never asked for this Faster Payment business.

I demand that they put in the ability to opt-out of Faster Payment.

Ideally, all accounts start out with Faster Payment disabled.

Quite a lot of these scams could never work if we were still using BACS, which takes three days.

They do have to have a separate procedure, so these solicitors can shirk all responsibility, and get rid of the money as soon as soon possible.

tgroom57

Scammers clearly did their research- identifying the weak link in the chain. Presumably all the above posters either have no joint accounts or can vouch for the security-awareness of the person they share the account with. More than once I've listened to a family member take a call from someone claiming the Direct debit (to their company- insurance, phone, sky etc) failed and then blithely hand over payment details. You'd all do the same.

The only niggling worry for me is that the article claims the smisher had the victims log-in details. It's not clear how that happened.

spenderdave

A very similar tale was the lead feature on Radio 4 Money Box last Saturday, in this case £180k was robbed from a (youngish) lady in multiple withdrawals. I thought this was the same story but seems different. I felt there was something that we were not being told during that report, in particular how the thieves got round having a different OTP presumably sent to her mobile phone for each new payee transaction. I suspect they got full access to her account and were able to change the mobile phone number to their own one? The story just didn't add up, somebody was being very foolish and I don't think Santander were the problem.

System

bengal-stripe wrote: »

I wonder if we are told the whole story. There might well have been promises of untold riches, which motivated the daughter to behave so recklessly.
I can only presume, greed must have taken over every rational thought.

Stupidity not greed.

Zanderman

tgroom57 wrote: »

I've often listened to a family member take a call from someone claiming the Direct debit (to their company- insurance, phone, sky etc) failed and then blithely hand over payment details.

Really? And you don't intervene? DDs rarely fail, so if people are 'often' getting calls suggesting they do it is likely they are being scammed.

As for the story heading up the thread - it is clearly the fault of the account holder, who didn't heed the warnings and now seems to be complaining there weren't any.

Yes, it's tragic, but no the banks shouldn't compensate in these scenarios - as the warnings are clear and people need to take responsibity for their actions.

Having said that yes the banks could make these scams more difficult - and perhaps with pressure they will in future. But they only need to do so because some people are gullible.

Shakin_Steve

tgroom57 wrote: »

Scammers clearly did their research- identifying the weak link in the chain. Presumably all the above posters either have no joint accounts or can vouch for the security-awareness of the person they share the account with. I've often listened to a family member take a call from someone claiming the Direct debit (to their company- insurance, phone, sky etc) failed and then blithely hand over payment details. You'd all do the same.

The only niggling worry for me is that the article claims the smisher had the victims log-in details. It's not clear how that happened.

If you have a joint account with this 'family member', watch out.
And I, for one, would definitely not do the same.

tgroom57

Shakin_Steve wrote: »

If you have a joint account with this 'family member', watch out.
And I, for one, would definitely not do the same.

No joint accounts here. Perhaps "often" was inaccurate. More than once, I should say.

ceredigion

spenderdave wrote: »

A very similar tale was the lead feature on Radio 4 Money Box last Saturday, in this case £180k was robbed from a (youngish) lady in multiple withdrawals. I thought this was the same story but seems different. I felt there was something that we were not being told during that report, in particular how the thieves got round having a different OTP presumably sent to her mobile phone for each new payee transaction. I suspect they got full access to her account and were able to change the mobile phone number to their own one? The story just didn't add up, somebody was being very foolish and I don't think Santander were the problem.

The lady on Money Box was feeding in the OTP to setup new payee when she was asked to by the fraudsters. Then blames the bank.


About 1:44 in
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b087p2k4

[Deleted User]

Instead of unwisely demanding Banks should refund customers who fall victim to such scams, MSE should be publishing articles about how to avoid the scams in the first place.

If the victims are tricked into giving away security information they really have no one to blame but themselves...

pinkdalek

What next? Police being sued and ordered to refund public losses as they are not there 24/7 to protect homes from burglaries?

Really why does MSE not share and aid people how to avoid fraud and also highlight how many fraudsters have been thwarted. (Oh sorry that is boring news isn't it)