Bank Account hacked

306james

Good day all.I don't know if this the correct board but it was the nearest one I could fine with the word Bank.
On the 1st of March 2019 I was scammed and lost £19850.00 from my bank account.They said they were from BT checking that my phone line had been hacked and needed help to block the hackers.I was on the phone and mobile for 4-5hrs and without giving any bank details they took the cash
My bank Santander will not refund the cash as they say it is my fault because I allowed them access to my account via my laptop and phone line.Any advise as to what to do would be appreciated.I have informed the fraud squad and Santander are investigating.

MEM62

Did you allow them access to your PC or any other device with your online banking access on it?

dan958

Please let us know exactly what access you gave them.

Ben8282

You just happened to have all that money sitting there in your current account waiting to be stolen? Where did it go?

datz

306james wrote: »

Good day all.I don't know if this the correct board but it was the nearest one I could fine with the word Bank.
On the 1st of March 2019 I was scammed and lost £19850.00 from my bank account.They said they were from BT checking that my phone line had been hacked and needed help to block the hackers.I was on the phone and mobile for 4-5hrs and without giving any bank details they took the cash
My bank Santander will not refund the cash as they say it is my fault because I allowed them access to my account via my laptop and phone line.Any advise as to what to do would be appreciated.I have informed the fraud squad and Santander are investigating.

It is very unlikely that your bank account was 'hacked' (as in the bank's systems themselves being compromised), The likelihood is that you either granted the fraudsters access to the account or account credentials, or initiated the transfer yourself (APP scam).

It's unfortunate that so many people still get caught out by these scams, especially when the fraudsters use the same formula and tactics over and over. This ISP/malware/security variant has been going on for years now, and usually works by convincing the user to install software to allow remote access to their system, and then either directly lifting credentials if you are silly enough to store them in plain text, or further convincing you to log into your online banking / move money to a 'safe' account / convince you to authorize the return of a pretend overpayment via some simple browser html source editing shenanigans / etc... There are slight variations on this approach, but the 4-5 hours they spent with you probably played out in a similar fashion.

The chances are, that even if you report it to your bank quickly, the money will have been moved on again several times and out of the country, making the direct recovery of it impossible. Whether your bank will reimburse you (or not) will be largely dependent on if they can demonstrate that you had or had not taken reasonable care. From what you say, it appears Santander deem that you have been negligent and are refusing to do so (you either gave your details away or authorised the payments yourself).

Your options are limited. You can raise it as a complaint with Santander and, once they issue you with a letter of deadlock, you can escalate to the FOS. The industry does seem to be moving in the direction of offering victims more recourse, so I suppose there is a chance they could find in your favour... You could always take your story to the media and hope for some external pressure, but these stories are a daily occurence now.

On a personal note, though, I do struggle to see how so many people can fall for these relatively simple scams, and I do have some reservations over the industry being pushed to protect these people from themselves - it's basically forcing banks to be responsible for individual stupidity. And this will be at a cost to other customers, whether it is reduced 'benefits' to offset the additional overhead, or extra obstacles when it comes to managing/moving your own money, etc.

[Deleted User]

Hello 306James, I'm so sorry to hear you've been taken like this - that's a lot of money to lose - but unless the investigation shows that Santander's system security had a weakness that was breached by the hackers, I don't see why they would be responsible for reimbursing you. I understand from your post that you might have given the hackers remote access to your device, but that in itself isn't an explanation unless you have your log-in details stored in a way that can be easily found. I think you need to find out from Santander's investigation exactly how they managed to hack your bank account - only this will tell you if you, or Santander, were negligent. Good luck anyway - it's still a horrible thing to have happened.

gt94sss2

I'm not sure if this will help you but https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2019/03/more-protection-for-money-transfer-victims-from-may/ may be of interest.

societys_child

. . individual stupidity.

Harsh but true.

robatwork

Is this another "scam" post where the OP has about 1/8 of the important detail and we have to try to extract it piecemeal?

maninthestreet

306james wrote: »

Good day all.I don't know if this the correct board but it was the nearest one I could fine with the word Bank.
On the 1st of March 2019 I was scammed and lost £19850.00 from my bank account.They said they were from BT checking that my phone line had been hacked and needed help to block the hackers.I was on the phone and mobile for 4-5hrs and without giving any bank details they took the cash
My bank Santander will not refund the cash as they say it is my fault because I allowed them access to my account via my laptop and phone line.Any advise as to what to do would be appreciated.I have informed the fraud squad and Santander are investigating.

oh dear. :eek::eek::eek:

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

306james wrote: »

Good day all.I don't know if this the correct board but it was the nearest one I could fine with the word Bank.
On the 1st of March 2019 I was scammed and lost £19850.00 from my bank account.They said they were from BT checking that my phone line had been hacked and needed help to block the hackers.I was on the phone and mobile for 4-5hrs and without giving any bank details they took the cash
My bank Santander will not refund the cash as they say it is my fault because I allowed them access to my account via my laptop and phone line.Any advise as to what to do would be appreciated.I have informed the fraud squad and Santander are investigating.

Please enlighten us?