Anti-fraud education

masonic

brianposter said:

Would it be unreasonable to expect that, if you had just lost the bank many thousands of pounds and there was a local branch readily available, you might be invited to a short interview with someone appropriately qualified ?

You are insinuating that the second occasion was something rather more sophisticated than could be prevented from a single face to face discussion about protecting oneself. In which case, the bank will probably have incurred significant expense in refunding some or all of the lost money. It's also questionable whether such a discussion would be productive, especially if your relative lacks the motivation or capacity to learn how to protect themself.

The information is readily available for free at sites like https://www.takefive-stopfraud.org.uk/ which, if read through and thoroughly digested, would likely be better than anything that could be laid on by appointment at a local branch.

I'm not totally against the idea of some form of course, a bit like 'speed awareness', though it would be important not to treat the victims like criminals and keep the course fee to a minimum, perhaps means-test it.

Ergates

brianposter said:

I don"t think I would regard it as a scheme - merely simple common sense.

It would have to be a "scheme".  It would require planning, it would require extra staff, it would require those staff to be appropriately trained, it would require materials to be prepared.

brianposter

I am suggesting exactly the opposite of what you suggest - that a single face to face discussion would appear to be a lot more effective than what appears to have happened. Particularly as the fact that all this information being available is totally irrelevant - the victim does not use the internet or a mobile phone.

SevenOfNine

Has the person agreed that 'vulnerable' needs to be added to their account?

Lloyds have put something in place (this Xmas anyway), transfer transactions are being randomly frozen on-line, with a message to call the Fraud Dept, or for some it seems to be "take ID into the bank". It's not going down too well with those 'picked on', I initially thought it was just me for being a scammed plonker, seems not though. Full post of what they're doing here. Is it permanent or temp for Xmas? Are other banks following suit?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6647162/llyds-bank-suspect-fraud-they-want-me-to-go-to-branch-help/p1

wmb194

brianposter said:

I am suggesting exactly the opposite of what you suggest - that a single face to face discussion would appear to be a lot more effective than what appears to have happened. Particularly as the fact that all this information being available is totally irrelevant - the victim does not use the internet or a mobile phone.

What happened?

Ergates

brianposter said:

I am suggesting exactly the opposite of what you suggest - that a single face to face discussion would appear to be a lot more effective than what appears to have happened. Particularly as the fact that all this information being available is totally irrelevant - the victim does not use the internet or a mobile phone.

That's not how banks (or any businesses) work.  If this were to happen, then it would be part of a specific scheme.  How else would you ensure that it happened when required, and that the information given out was consistent, correct, appropriate and understandable to the intended audience?  Certainly if this is something you "expect".   There is nothing stopping a member of staff inviting a customer in for a chat off the cuff - but that wouldn't be part of any standard operating procedure (i.e. wouldn't be consistent) and wouldn't be something you could say "Why didn't you do that?" about.

As an aside - did any members of the victim's family sit down with them and try to educate them about scams?

masonic

I don't think an individual bank employee would be permitted to engage in an unscripted conversation with a customer advising them of how to stay safe from scams. The bank could be held responsible for anything the employee says and would not accept that risk. So there would need to be an organised scheme, training, etc.

Any such scheme is likely to focus on online scams, which are by far the most common. So may not be sufficiently targeted at an individual that doesn't use a smartphone or the internet.

Presumably this scam involved receiving cold calls on the telephone and giving out card details. Old school, but I guess this sort of thing still happens.

eskbanker

On the subject of resources, there is a book published by the Met Police, also available in PDF form (which is obviously not much use for offline folk), but may be available via the victim's local force if they've been involved:

The Little Book of Big Scams – 5th Edition

The fact that it runs to 60 pages emphasises the difficulty of trying to convey the scope of a complex subject, which in turn minimises the prospect of this being done adequately in person.

Incidentally, when looking for this, I happened to come across a reference to how Action Fraud has recently been renamed to Report Fraud, an altogether more accurate term....

Report Fraud: New service from City of London Police - GOV.UK

born_again

brianposter said:

I am suggesting exactly the opposite of what you suggest - that a single face to face discussion would appear to be a lot more effective than what appears to have happened. Particularly as the fact that all this information being available is totally irrelevant - the victim does not use the internet or a mobile phone.

Perhaps someone from the family needs to sit down with then & advise them. Same as many of us do with other family members.

Also they need to speak to the bank about being registered as a vulnerable customer. So bank can set process in place should any large transactions are made & are blocked till confirmed genuine. 

But without knowing exactly what the issues was all you will get is generic advice.
Guessing it must have been something in person. 

Ergates

eskbanker said:

On the subject of resources, there is a book published by the Met Police, also available in PDF form (which is obviously not much use for offline folk), but may be available via the victim's local force if they've been involved:

30 pages of double sided printing - not too onerous for someone to print for them.  Probably more onerous to read...