The Guardian - Mother was scammed out of £29,000, but Lloyds showed little empathy

adamp87

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jan/24/mother-was-scammed-out-of-29000-but-lloyds-showed-little-empathy

As this forum has been quite deep in discussion over fraudulent accounts/frozen funds and such this week I thought this experience may be an interesting discussion point.

For those who don’t want to click the link basically:

A 30 year customer of Lloyds was scammed out of £29k.

Someone cold called pretending to be Vanguard and convinced her to part with £29k to invest in cryptocurrency.

To do this the lady (who isn’t that self aware financially and struggles with a language barrier it says) used her savings and managed to somehow get a £20k loan for this.

I think some things are missing out of the article but anyway Lloyds refused to foot the entire bill. 

Zopa thankfully wrote off the loan (I suspect they perhaps didn’t do proper checks either) but I’m frankly astounded this happened without anyone batting an eyelid from all parties including the victim.

Lloyds mention that they’ve never been informed of any language issues in those 30 years but admittedly it seems their service has been poor too when she asked for help.

Should Lloyds have done more in this case? 

tacpot12

I don't think Lloyds should have refunded more than they have. 

I find one point particularly relevant - the article says "The bank says it also flagged up that it could not verify the account she was paying into when she set it up using online banking." The mother in question no doubt does not read English well enough to have understood the warning, and clicked though it, when they should not have done so, but I question whether Lloyds should allow ANY customer to click through a warning if the account cannot be verified. This strikes me as being prima facie evidence that the customer does not know who they are paying, and the payment should be stopped. 

That said, their customer did not take enough care of their own money, and if their customers are not going to take care, then why should the bank be liable. 

diystarter7

Hi

Initially I was with the banks stance not to pay and support that. Then it got worse, they paid her.

It was up to her to check out the company so I'm not sure why the bank paid the 20k but I'm sure they missed out on something

Just shows how careful you need to be eseically with stuff like this

Thnaks

x_raphael_xx

I'm always amazed these stories start with "cold called & asked to invest in crypto".

If someone cold called me asking to invest I'd be instantly suspicious. Who sends that amount of money to someone who calls out the blue!

Edited to add:
Banks have so many warnings re:scams when adding new payees. And if she ignored these warnings & clicked through I believe that is her fault and not the banks.

I've seen an article where someone was withdrawing a large sum from the bank, the teller asked the reason for the withdrawal (as per their scam checks) and the account holder lied as they just wanted the money released.
The bank ended up footing the bill for that one too.

MattMattMattUK

adamp87 said:

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/jan/24/mother-was-scammed-out-of-29000-but-lloyds-showed-little-empathy

As this forum has been quite deep in discussion over fraudulent accounts/frozen funds and such this week I thought this experience may be an interesting discussion point.

For those who don’t want to click the link basically:

A 30 year customer of Lloyds was scammed out of £29k.

Someone cold called pretending to be Vanguard and convinced her to part with £29k to invest in cryptocurrency.

To do this the lady (who isn’t that self aware financially and struggles with a language barrier it says) used her savings and managed to somehow get a £20k loan for this.

I think some things are missing out of the article but anyway Lloyds refused to foot the entire bill. 

Zopa thankfully wrote off the loan (I suspect they perhaps didn’t do proper checks either) but I’m frankly astounded this happened without anyone batting an eyelid from all parties including the victim.

Lloyds mention that they’ve never been informed of any language issues in those 30 years but admittedly it seems their service has been poor too when she asked for help.

Should Lloyds have done more in this case? 

I read that article and I think ultimately no, they should not have even gone as far as they did, nor should the loan have been written off. 

Shakin_Steve

If these crypto scams keep on happening, I can see more banks flatly refusing to transfer any funds to cryptocurrency accounts. This whole refund malarkey is completely out of hand, I didn't realise that one could insure against stupidity. Free insurance, too.

sheramber

I have had that message that the bank could not verify the account. It was a Clydesdale account and  Clydesdale were not part of COP.

I knew it was genuine account.

sheramber

LLOYDS only refunded £2700  it was ZOPA who wrote off the loan.

Thankfully, her losses have been reduced substantially after some payments were returned, or cancelled, and Zopa wrote off a £20,000 loan. As a result, Lloyds estimates her total loss stands at £8,150..

flaneurs_lobster

Shakin_Steve said:

If these crypto scams keep on happening, I can see more banks flatly refusing to transfer any funds to cryptocurrency accounts. This whole refund malarkey is completely out of hand, I didn't realise that one could insure against stupidity. Free insurance, too.

The fact that this example concerned crypto is not really relevant, it could have been any MacGuffin that "guarantees" huge returns (timeshares, BTL properties, pedigree kittens). What's happened here is the convenience of online banking running up against banks trying (and failing) to stop people being scammed and then being on the hook to reimburse them. 

[Deleted User]

"who isn’t that self aware financially and struggles with a language"

I find this hard to believe if she managed to open a loan and then transfer money. How did she manage to save? As a society we really must move away from this everyone is a victim, and start to take responsibility. I am very sorry  this lady has lost a lot of her savings but I suspect there is more to the story. 

Alex9384

x_raphael_xx said:

Banks have so many warnings re:scams when adding new payees. And if she ignored these warnings & clicked through I believe that is her fault and not the banks.

If scammers are familiar with the bank you use, they know exactly what appears on your screen and may tell you something like "Oh this is just a standard security message, just click OK" or whatever. Scammers are scammers because they are good in lying and manipulating people.
I remember reading about people who said they thought they were very vigilant and could never be scammed, and yet, one day it happened to them.