Scammed

Lolls79

Looking for some advice. I've recently been a victim of a HMRC scam and they have taken from me over £8000. My bank can't refund any of the monies, so now im left gutted and heartbroken. Does anyone know or could they advise where I can seek advice next in relation to getting this money back. 

elsien

Was this someone pretending to be HMRC and if so, how did you give the money to them? 

Lolls79

elsien said:

Was this someone pretending to be HMRC and if so, how did you give the money to them? 

They scammed me yes they were claiming to be from the HMRC very clever people. Scared mongered me with threats of a criminal record and said my national insurance number was found on documents in a car used for criminal activities. Amongst other things. The whole event has been traumatic to say the least

elsien

How did you pay them the money? 

elsien

Duplicate post.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6282039/scammed#latest

Caz3121

was this one of these spam phone calls saying a warrant was to be issued for your arrest and to press 1?
(I have had a few of these and just hang up and block the number)

naedanger

Lolls79 said:

Looking for some advice. I've recently been a victim of a HMRC scam and they have taken from me over £8000. My bank can't refund any of the monies, so now im left gutted and heartbroken. Does anyone know or could they advise where I can seek advice next in relation to getting this money back. 

The bank do have obligations to help protect people from scams and can be ordered to make good customer losses by the Financial Ombudsman Service. The following are a couple of examples.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/303439/DRN9362667.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/298460/DRN-2577067.pdf

But to be held liable they do need to have failed in some way. If the transaction(s) you paid was clearly unusually large for you, and the bank did nothing to alert you to the potential risk then they may be liable. On the otherhand if there was nothing  unusual about the transaction(s) that might alert them to the potential risk of a scam, or you ignored reasonable warnings then they probably won't be held liable.

If you and the bank dispute whether they did enough to help prevent the fraud you should complain in writing. They will send you a copy of their complaint procedure and if you are unsatisfied with their final response you can escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It is a slow process.

Further reading:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/fraud-scams

Possibly also try Citizen's Advice Bureau.

kaMelo

naedanger said:

Lolls79 said:

Looking for some advice. I've recently been a victim of a HMRC scam and they have taken from me over £8000. My bank can't refund any of the monies, so now im left gutted and heartbroken. Does anyone know or could they advise where I can seek advice next in relation to getting this money back. 

The bank do have obligations to help protect people from scams and can be ordered to make good customer losses by the Financial Ombudsman Service. The following are a couple of examples.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/303439/DRN9362667.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/298460/DRN-2577067.pdf

But to be held liable they do need to have failed in some way. If the transaction(s) you paid was clearly unusually large for you, and the bank did nothing to alert you to the potential risk then they may be liable. On the otherhand if there was nothing  unusual about the transaction(s) that might alert them to the potential risk of a scam, or you ignored reasonable warnings then they probably won't be held liable.

If you and the bank dispute whether they did enough to help prevent the fraud you should complain in writing. They will send you a copy of their complaint procedure and if you are unsatisfied with their final response you can escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It is a slow process.

Further reading:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/fraud-scams

Possibly also try Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Not any more they don't. Since the introduction of CRM the starting position now is that the bank are liable for everything unless the bank can prove the case is one of a limited number of exceptions. 

Customer responsibility is a thing of the past, ridiculous in my opinion but that's where we're at.

elsien

OP has been asked a list of questions on the other thread about how the money was paid, including whether the name verification was used, and the reason the bank gave for declining the refund. Until they come back and provide more information then it's all speculation. 

naedanger

kaMelo said:

naedanger said:

Lolls79 said:

Looking for some advice. I've recently been a victim of a HMRC scam and they have taken from me over £8000. My bank can't refund any of the monies, so now im left gutted and heartbroken. Does anyone know or could they advise where I can seek advice next in relation to getting this money back. 

The bank do have obligations to help protect people from scams and can be ordered to make good customer losses by the Financial Ombudsman Service. The following are a couple of examples.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/303439/DRN9362667.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/298460/DRN-2577067.pdf

But to be held liable they do need to have failed in some way. If the transaction(s) you paid was clearly unusually large for you, and the bank did nothing to alert you to the potential risk then they may be liable. On the otherhand if there was nothing  unusual about the transaction(s) that might alert them to the potential risk of a scam, or you ignored reasonable warnings then they probably won't be held liable.

If you and the bank dispute whether they did enough to help prevent the fraud you should complain in writing. They will send you a copy of their complaint procedure and if you are unsatisfied with their final response you can escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It is a slow process.

Further reading:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/fraud-scams

Possibly also try Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Not any more they don't. Since the introduction of CRM the starting position now is that the bank are liable for everything unless the bank can prove the case is one of a limited number of exceptions. 

Customer responsibility is a thing of the past, ridiculous in my opinion but that's where we're at.

So that is good news for the op. 

Pennywise

naedanger said:

kaMelo said:

naedanger said:

Lolls79 said:

Looking for some advice. I've recently been a victim of a HMRC scam and they have taken from me over £8000. My bank can't refund any of the monies, so now im left gutted and heartbroken. Does anyone know or could they advise where I can seek advice next in relation to getting this money back. 

The bank do have obligations to help protect people from scams and can be ordered to make good customer losses by the Financial Ombudsman Service. The following are a couple of examples.

https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/303439/DRN9362667.pdf
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/files/298460/DRN-2577067.pdf

But to be held liable they do need to have failed in some way. If the transaction(s) you paid was clearly unusually large for you, and the bank did nothing to alert you to the potential risk then they may be liable. On the otherhand if there was nothing  unusual about the transaction(s) that might alert them to the potential risk of a scam, or you ignored reasonable warnings then they probably won't be held liable.

If you and the bank dispute whether they did enough to help prevent the fraud you should complain in writing. They will send you a copy of their complaint procedure and if you are unsatisfied with their final response you can escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. It is a slow process.

Further reading:
https://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/consumers/complaints-can-help/fraud-scams

Possibly also try Citizen's Advice Bureau.

Not any more they don't. Since the introduction of CRM the starting position now is that the bank are liable for everything unless the bank can prove the case is one of a limited number of exceptions. 

Customer responsibility is a thing of the past, ridiculous in my opinion but that's where we're at.

So that is good news for the op. 

We don't know if it's good news.  The OP hasn't said how the scam occurred.  I suspect it's another case (similar to recently on here) where they used a rogue firm to submit a false claim for a tax refund, refund paid by HMRC to the rogue firm, then HMRC do a check to discover the refund was wrong, and claim the money back from the taxpayer.  If that's the case, the bank aren't even involved, yet alone responsible for anything.  But, seeing as OP hasn't been back to clarify, it's all speculation.