My son was scammed out of £1200, has he lost it?

kinny999

Afternoon folks, 

My 21 yr old Autistic son was scammed out fo £1200 by way of a con thats becoming prevelant on discord. They messaged him through the app with "a suspicion that his account was a bot" and required a £20 payment to validate him and stop the risk of his account being terminated. 

He came to us and we immediately contacted his bank who did you expected and froze his card, ordered a new card and locked his account down. 

Sadly the way they got into his account was to send screen shots of his log in details and then pass on the code from the banks security text message to his phone ; yes the one that says "do not share this with anyone".
 
 Without wanting to play the autism card particularly (as he doesn't suffer from anything massively effecting or dibilitating due to the tism), his entire social life is entwined in discord so he was absolutley bricking it at the prospect of losing his account or being blocked which is why he gave the details with little consideration.

The bank has come back to him today via email to say sorry were not giving you the money back but you'll receive a letter to appeal in the next few days. Citing the obvious fact that he openly gave them the log in details which from their perspective, i totally understand. 

Is there any scope for arguing the toss with them, can anybody advise?  despite him being a monumental pillock and unlocking the door and walking them into his account? 

Sincere thanks for any advice anybody can provide. 

Undervalued

kinny999 said:

Afternoon folks, 

My 21 yr old Autistic son was scammed out fo £1200 by way of a con thats becoming prevelant on discord. They messaged him through the app with "a suspicion that his account was a bot" and required a £20 payment to validate him and stop the risk of his account being terminated. 

He came to us and we immediately contacted his bank who did you expected and froze his card, ordered a new card and locked his account down. 

Sadly the way they got into his account was to send screen shots of his log in details and then pass on the code from the banks security text message to his phone ; yes the one that says "do not share this with anyone".
 
 Without wanting to play the autism card particularly (as he doesn't suffer from anything massively effecting or dibilitating due to the tism), his entire social life is entwined in discord so he was absolutley bricking it at the prospect of losing his account or being blocked which is why he gave the details with little consideration.

The bank has come back to him today via email to say sorry were not giving you the money back but you'll receive a letter to appeal in the next few days. Citing the obvious fact that he openly gave them the log in details which from their perspective, i totally understand. 

Is there any scope for arguing the toss with them, can anybody advise?  despite him being a monumental pillock and unlocking the door and walking them into his account? 

Sincere thanks for any advice anybody can provide. 

Were the bank formally aware of his condition? If so, was this an appropriate banking facility to offer somebody with that condition?

Other than that, as you yourself have suggested, it is hard to see that the bank has done anything wrong and it would appear to be his fault I'm afraid.

DE_612183

Which bank?

I doubt there is much comeback, but depending on which bank you may get a more understanding response.

kinny999

DE_612183 said:

Which bank?

I doubt there is much comeback, but depending on which bank you may get a more understanding response.

He’s with Santander and they were aware of his autism, but to possibly side with the bank here, I’m not honestly sure what they could have done that wouldn’t have been subject to the same urgency in his head thus negating the security element sadly.

i just want to be sure I’ve done everything I can as a parent and not just roll over but I do freely admit he’s kind of opened himself up to it entirely here


thanks so much for the responses so quickly folks 

PHK

There is a scheme for victims of scams but it generally only applies to what are called authorised push payments, that is where a person is coached or groomed into making the payment themselves directly to a scammer. 

In this case it seems that control of the bank account was given to the scammers. In that case the only hope is if you can prove that the bank did something wrong. 

I think you need specialist advice from Citizens Advice. Please be very careful about using a claims management company. They often promise the earth but are I'm it for what they can get. 

HillStreetBlues

The only think I could think of if the transactions were totally usual for your son.