Lloyds Bank Fraud Detection "helpline"

Randolf_B

Previous posts from 2017 are now closed, hence a new topic. This issue may never have really gone away, but the latest is that the system/servers which the so-called "helpline" staff tell customers they are using to investigate a blocked account isn't working. It hasn't been working now for several days, yet the caller has no means of verifying whether this is actually true. Given that interest rates are starting to rise, undoubtedly account holders are possibly wanting to transfer money between savings accounts and this invariably means routing those (often large) sums via a current account. Could it be that Lloyds and maybe other High Street banks are reluctant to let these large funds leave their institutions and this "technical issue" is just a ruse? The "helpline" typically has a one hour wait and if the call gets dropped, you're at the back of the queue again. I've had two transactions blocked in as many months, spending over four hours cumulatively at various times when convenient to call just in the last three days - all to no avail. There is nothing showing on internet "down-detector" websites indicating that Lloyds has a problem, adding to my question as to whether this is genuinely a technical problem. The riduclous side to this is that the payee sort code is recognised as a legitimate banking institute each time and a Lloyds screen message asks the account holder to confirm that they are accepting a risk that the payment could be a scam. Credit interest with the new institute is being lost for each day this farce continues and there just doesn't seem any way forward to unlock the funds other than perhaps complaining to the Banking Ombudsman to reclaim lost interest. Is anyone else fossilizing whilst sat endlessly waiting to be connected to someone who will undoubtedly say that "we expect the system to be back up and running soon, try again later"? I think the battery on my phone is about to die I've been on hold that long.

kaMelo

Because banks are being held liable when people give their money away to scammers they are becoming more proactive in protecting themselves by blocking payments until the account holder confirms they absolutely want to make the payment, thus removing their liability.

[Deleted User]

Randolf_B said:

 Could it be that Lloyds and maybe other High Street banks are reluctant to let these large funds leave their institutions and this "technical issue" is just a ruse? 

No, clearly not. 

Daliah

I doubt there are many people with big sums of money in High Street banks. I also think it's highly unlikely that banks are holding up outgoing transfers in order to hold on to customers' money for a few hours longer. 

There is, however, likely to be a massively increased volume of payments which will be held up for additional checks. Banks are doing this to reduce their exposure to having to pay thousands to customers who claim they were victims of scams. Consumer organisations demanded that banks increase their duty of care, so that's precisely what banks are now doing. Sadly, this new "care" hits all of us at times.

Olinda99

I had personal experience of Lloyds being over-zealous in blocking payments and in the end got so fed up I switched away from them to FD - no.problems since

wmb194

Daliah said:

I doubt there are many people with big sums of money in High Street banks.

The OP wrote, "routed" through Lloyds, not kept there. This would be true for me when I'm moving savings deposits around as well but I haven't had any problems. Then again, Lloyds' systems are used to seeing quite a lot of money moving through my current account every month over an extended period of time.