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

swm039

@GingerTim thanks for information however I need more clarification due to the nature of this scam.  My understanding is mandatory reimbursement scheme is for APP Scams but for scam to be considered as APP scams the money must have gone from bank account to third party and not from bank account to person's own crypto exchange because in later case bank is not the endpoint and bank is not obliged to apply APP Scams so even if the new scheme come into force later it won't mater in such cases?

annoan

I'm sorry to hear about your friend's situation. It's indeed a distressing experience to fall victim to such sophisticated scams. Here's some advice that might be helpful for your friend:

Report to Authorities: It's good that your friend has already reported the scam to Action Fraud. They should also consider reporting it to other relevant authorities like the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) if the scam involved financial transactions.

Document Everything: Encourage your friend to gather and keep all evidence related to the scam, including conversations, transaction records, emails, and any other relevant documentation. These will be essential for any investigation and potential reimbursement claims.

Contact the Bank Again: Your friend should continue to follow up with the bank regarding the investigation. While it's frustrating that there haven't been updates, sometimes these investigations can take time. However, it's essential to keep the pressure on and ensure they are actively working on the case. 

I hope this will help you.

MeteredOut

I really think the bank will wash its hands of this one. The victim here transferred the crypto to their own wallet, and then from there onto the scammers. The bank account was not (directly) part of the scam.

swm039

We need some clarification for writing about the scam to ombudsman.   We are going to submit all evidences and also write about the scam however do we also need to write about the warning bank gave and how my friend followed scammer's instruction and thought bank's warning was not relevant to her situation etc..,?  overall do we need to breakdown the story by dates (or date range) or explaining in paragraphs would be sufficient?

gm0

There is no point in lying about a warning the bank gave.  By pretending it did not do it.  While it might work with an inattentive defence.  So if it happened include it.  If something that should have happened was missed (which is your best chance of success frankly) then equally be extremely clear about steps or other bank interactions where you were innappropriately reassured or given other mis-direction.  But you lying by omission and pretending to not remember seeing the internet banking warning screen - doesn't mean the FOS will believe you. When the bank say that for that payment destination it does have a warning on its screens - and the mistake is your memory and clicking through - and not their process and IT. Asserting not their liability once you clicked on past it. And definitely not for consequential loss with subsequent transfers on from the unregulated crypto exchange.

A straight chronology of facts about what happened and who said what to whom and did what and when
Date order.  That is going to be your best approach that also preserves your friends integrity.  
Specific short sentence statements of facts. Not descriptive prose without dates and a load of subjective opinion blended in.

If you wish you can summarise the key events following the last bank step to the now disputed (consequential) loss - or you can just summarise the details about it.  The sections where the bank are not involved at all.  The details post crypto of your friend and the scammers behaviour are just not as relevant to your complaint.  Too much of that story in the narrative may just add to the idea that the bank really do not have any liability to clean this mess up for you at all.  For actions that took place long after the warned against transfer to the initial crypto exchange.

Which in reality is probably the case. 

You may be able to find a misstep. Or you may be able to use the media interest / avoid bad publicity social media route to trigger a payoff - even where one isn't really justified.

Honesty while still the best policy may not however get the lost money back from the bank.  Or anything from FOS if they have followed the correct warning process.

Trying to force your different situation into a "pay these ones" category of "app fraud" - may work (because mistakes happen and this is a new and complex topic) or be wishful thinking and a waste of time.  So be prepared for that outcome.

swm039

do we need to submit evidences of chat with the bank after raising fraud or that would be for the bank to submit when asked by ombudsman? We will include the copies of email after raising complain with timeline.

Marcon

swm039 said:

This scam has been reported as soon as it was clear that she has been scammed to the Action Fraud and also to the bank from where the transactions took place.  Just to be clear scammer made her open account on crypto exchange so money was going from bank to her own crypto wallet and from there it went to scammer's crypto wallets. 

During the scam her bank did warn her but that was at the very beginning and of smaller amount but since the money was going to her own crypto wallet the suspension was lifted and after that many transactions of bigger amounts happened on consecutive days but her bank didn't give her any more warning and didn't stop the transactions from taking place.

You certainly need to include the above in your chronology of events, but 'the scammer made her...' won't cut much ice. Scammers can persuade (and boy, they do - very convincingly) but she still chose to open the crypto account.

The bank warned her at the very beginning, so she was on notice from the start that this looked dodgy. The chronology should include details of why she chose to ignore the warning.

otb666

@swm039 update as promised  Lloyds refunded 1500 of 4200 lost on 1/3.They said they were partly to blame as were unaware of such scams and quite a new and sophisticated scam and could have done things better.  My Son has just informed me sorry about delay.  He seems quite happy with that 

swm039

To give update,  we have since gone to ombudsman and hopefully they will soon pickup My Friend's case.  Her bank is still asking questions and no concrete response from them yet even after submitting all the evidences.

@otb666 thanks for the update and good news for your son.  

otb666

@swm039 How did you get on with your friends case?