Need some advice to help my friend who has been the victim of a scam

swm039

otb666 said:

My son got done my this same scam and lost £4200  has been reported to Action Fraud.  It have effected his confidence. Just wanted to let your friend know they are not alone in being conned.  Please let us know how you get on with getting your money back as his bank Lloyds did not refund him.  Also i am surprised there is not a scamming category on MSE Forum

Thanks @otb666 I will surely let you know on how this ends up by the way did your son complained to Lloyds?  somewhere I read Lloyds is the more likely to reimburse than any other bank.  Seems like these type of scams are on the rise as they are managing to extract more money from people mainly due to the sophisticated technic they use which is not good because that will only increase their confidence.  If banks not help then we still have FOSA to help my mate and your son let's be positive. 

eskbanker

swm039 said:
When you say that this doesn't really fall under consumer rights can you please explain bit more in detail? does that mean this can not be categorised as APP Scams?

That's mixing up two separate concepts - the APP scam code is a banking protocol that offers some protection to those persuaded to make a bank transfer to a third party, but (unrelated to that) this board's focus on consumer rights generally reflects activities covered by the Consumer Rights Act rather than employment matters, which have a separate board on this forum.

The point being made, as I understand it, was that if she signed up to some form of employment ("once her training was over she started the job she was earning good commission and also getting basic salary") then that's not really a consumer rights issue as such, but any responsibilities of the bank would remain the same.

ArbitraryRandom

swm039 said:

When you say that this doesn't really fall under consumer rights can you please explain bit more in detail? 

Consumer rights protect consumers... which is basically defined as a person who purchases goods or services for personal use. 

For example, if your friend had been paying for software, or for access to a trading platform, or if she was told the payments were for the training/lessons, then consumer rights may come into play. 

(Separately, the issue would then be enforcing those rights given I doubt the scammers live in the UK or gave legitimate details so taking them to court for a refund would be challenging at best)

otb666

@swm039 Apart from giving him a number Lloyds have not done anything else. They were not really interested when he told them but I will keep an eye on this thread for him.  

penners324

Has a complaint been lodged with the Exchange? 

Are they regulated?

swm039

penners324 said:

Has a complaint been lodged with the Exchange? 

Are they regulated?

She did raise fraud with crypto exchange (OKX) which I think is FCA regulated but because none of the wallet addresses belonged to them they responded saying crypto transactions are irreversible and therefore cannot help to get her money back.  Not sure about complaint though will that make a difference because I think crypto exchanges are not subject to same rules and responsibilities as banks?

swm039

recently I found out that there will be new mandatory reimbursement scheme in place soon but not sure if that is going help in this case can someone who is expert or knows more in detail help and clarify?

GingerTim

swm039 said:

recently I found out that there will be new mandatory reimbursement scheme in place soon but not sure if that is going help in this case can someone who is expert or knows more in detail help and clarify?

I don't think so, this scheme isn't scheduled to begin until October, and there are two large exceptions to reimbursement according to this decent summary of the scheme.

https://www.farrer.co.uk/news-and-insights/authorised-push-payment-fraud-and-mandatory-reimbursement/

There will be two exceptions:

• Where the customer has acted fraudulently, or
• Where the customer has acted with gross negligence, that is, outside the consumer standard of caution: see below for more details.

otb666

@swm039 the bank have been in contact yesterday to say they are still investigating We have gone over 8 weeks but will let you know outcome

swm039

@otb666 we are also at the same stage 8 weeks are over and bank got in touch recently to say that they are still investigating,  we are planning go to ombudsman soon I will update here.