Mother was a victim of Whatsapp scam fraud - will she get her money back?

purple-rain_3

May I first and foremost say I do hope that people will be kind and will not use this thread as a lecture to say how silly she was or that it is her own fault. 

With that said, my 75 year old Mother fell victim to the "Hi Mum" Whatsapp scam that has been doing the rounds and she transferred just under £1,000 to a complete stranger via her online banking app.

The scammer made out to be one of her children and said their phone had been dropped and was broken so they were texting on a new temporary number and were super stressed at work.  The scammer went on to ask for help, saying they had an invoice that needed to be paid by 5pm (the message was sent at 4.30pm) and could she please help process the transfer as they had lost access to their internet banking because of their smashed phone.  She went ahead and assisted as requested; the payment was made to an individual's UK Santander bank account - they gave a name (presumably theirs) and a bank account number and sort number.  It was a UK registered O2 mobile phone, although presumably a "burner" or whatnot. 

She banks with Barclays and has of course filed a report with them and also with the Police via "ActionFraud".  Barclays say they will investigate but say they do not guarantee repayment. The transfer emptied her account and it is heartbreaking.  She was crying all evening and unable to sleep.  We have come together as a family to support and better educate her (and reimbursed her ourselves for now) but I'd like to know if she has any chance of Barclays helping or if they will simply say she should have known better.  Thank you. 

Mark_d

This is a common type of fraud which uses the common techniques - asking for money as a matter or urgency.  I don't know if Barclays asked your mother questions about the payment, as it was being made to an account she had not paid previously.

I suspect there's little chance in getting the money back given that this is a common fraud and I believe most banks have implemented techniques for protecting their customers (asking customers to think about whether the payment could be a scam).  Nevertheless it's always worth trying to claim against Barclays.  Maybe they will show some compassion/goodwill.

400ixl

Social engineering pulling on emotions driven by urgency are the worst for many people.

Do you know if she was challenged about the payment and agreed to it happening at any point? No checks may be one challenge to getting it back.

molerat

I set up a new payee with Santander last week and it was like the Spanish Inquisition, must have been 10 clicks through various "are you sure" questions to authorise the payment even though COP had correctly identified the payee name.

born_again

All you can do is wait & see what they decide.

Given it is a known scam & Barclays are part of the App scam scheme. It is fingers crossed. But if she does not get refunded then It will be worthwhile getting her to complain to them.

eskbanker

purple-rain_3 said:

She went ahead and assisted as requested; the payment was made to an individual's UK Santander bank account - they gave a name (presumably theirs) and a bank account number and sort number.

When you say 'theirs', do you mean the name of the person who'd allegedly dropped their phone or a name used by the scammer?

If the latter, that obviously ought to have rung alarm bells and so the sending bank may consider that to jeopardise reimbursement, although there'd no doubt have been some cover story given - it would raise questions if the receiving bank opened an account in a fake name though.

However, as above, all she can really do is wait and see what transpires....

Ergates

It is unlikely she will get the money back.

Barclays, like pretty much all banks, will have build in security features that kick in whenever you're setting up a payment - which will warn you about the risks of scams and how they operate, and ask you to make very sure this isn't a scam and are you really *really*  sure you want to set up this payment?   She will have had to have clicked "Yes" on all the questions to get the payment set up.

Barclays will probably argue that in asking all those questions, they have done all they could reasonably be expected to do and therefore cannot be held responsible.

xylophone

https://www.ybs.co.uk/savings/guides/hi-mum-scams-how-to-spot-and-avoid-them#:~:text=How to spot and avoid “Hi Mum” message scams&text=A “hi mum” or “,has seen a worrying rise.