bank transfer scam HELP

18cc

Agree with the above post and at the risk of labouring the point and to answer your original question there is no point whatsoever your friend complaining to his bank as all they did was followed his instructions and made the payments specified

your friend's remedy lays via action Fraud and possibly the police should he want to go that way

18cc

Oh and look on the bright side - that £160 at age 19 to learn a lesson about 'investing' (which I expect will last a lifetime) is a very cheap way of getting that education

That lesson has cost quite a number of people considerably more....

gatters

Your friend could ask whoever he sent the money to, to send it back.

alanwsg

Santander just posted a tweet about this ....

https://twitter.com/santanderuk/status/1110916639644618753

jonnygee2

My friend wants to know if theres anything he could say to his bank without incriminating himself to get his money back

He needs to follow this advice and report this https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/ponzi-schemes

Any attempt to lie, including by omission, would be a form of fraud itself and very ill advised.

My friend also doesnt want the guy in the middle to get prosecuted either

Your friend has no business deciding who does or does not get prosecuted. He is not the judiciary or the government.

His sole legal duty is to report the crime to actionfraud, which is what he should do.

eskbanker

jonnygee2 wrote: »

He needs to follow this advice and report this https://www.actionfraud.police.uk/a-z-of-fraud/ponzi-schemes

This looks more like a pyramid scheme than a Ponzi one, so the info posted earlier by 18cc would seem to be a better fit.

AIUI, investors in a Ponzi scheme believe they're getting a return on their money from a genuine investment whereas participants in a pyramid scheme are well aware that it's only sustained by recruiting new members to fund the existing ones....

[Deleted User]

If your friend really you?

Asking for a friend of course

Ergates

The only time the bank might refund a customer in these types of circumstances is if the customer has been previously identified as a "vulnerable" customer (i.e. someone with reduced mental capacity), and if it should have been clear that the customer was being manipulated by a fraudster.

However, whilst it certainly sounds like your friend isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the box, and might even fit the definition of a vulnerable customer, a single customer initiated bank transfer of relatively low value isn't something that shouts "manipulated by a fraudster", so isn't something that bank could reasonably have been expected to pick up.

To avoid this kind of thing happening in future, perhaps your friend should have someone responsible manage his banking for him.

Flobberchops

I don't "get" the premise of this scheme. If over the course of one Round Robin of payments you'll have sent 8 lots of £160 and in turn received £1280 - you're back at square one? Why would anybody take all that risk of being ripped off by any one of eight people, for zero profit?


(Everything said prior still applies. Your friend has no basis for a claim.)

Ergates

Flobberchops wrote: »

I don't "get" the premise of this scheme. If over the course of one Round Robin of payments you'll have sent 8 lots of £160 and in turn received £1280 - you're back at square one? Why would anybody take all that risk of being ripped off by any one of eight people, for zero profit?

You'd only may 7 payments (you're in the "game" for 8 rounds, but the last round you're "in the middle"). So you might *might* make £160 out of it, if it doesn't collapse first.

But the reason you don't "get" it is that it doesn't make any sense and only a total moron would fall for it.