A devastated fraud victim has spoken of his ordeal after being left with no option but to watch as fraudsters raided his bank account – while he was on the phone trying to report it.
The man, whose identity has been concealed, had received a text alert from Lloyds Bank stating £4,100 was leaving his bank account.
He contacted Lloyds Bank’s customer services to explain that the transaction was not his – only to be told he was through to the wrong department.
Instead of freezing his account, he claims the bank’s call centre staff insisted that only the fraud team could help, and left him on hold for more than an hour before cutting him off.
He says he watched in horror as the fraudster, whom he later learned was using Lloyds’ telephone banking system, moved money from his savings and authorised two payments of £4,100 – totalling over £8,000 worth of withdrawals.
Have you been a victim of fraud? Tell us your story: emma.munbodh@mirror.co.uk
“It was appalling. There was nothing I could seemingly do to stop it,” the customer told The Guardian.
“Using another phone line I again called Lloyds’ customer services but was told that only the fraud department could deal with it.
“I don’t understand why Lloyds sends out these alerts if they don’t have the ability to stop such a fraud from taking place.”
The man had fallen victim to a rare type of fraud. Instead of transferring money to their own accounts, they instructed the bank to send it to two contractors he had previously paid after building work on his Hertfordshire home.
That made it easier as the recipients were already named as registered payees on his account – which meant there were no security checks to pass.
In his case, the fraudsters immediately contacted the two contractors, pretending to be him.
They claimed that the money had been transferred in error and asked for it to be returned – however to a completely different account.
In another blow, after three phone calls to Lloyds, Giles was told by bank staff that it was up to him to try to recover the money himself.
Although the first contractor repaid his £4,100 after it established his true identity, the second company owner, unsure as to who was the fraudster and who was the victim, refused to refund either him or the scammers.
“After another two hours on the phone to the fraud department, I was pretty shocked to be told by Lloyds that they had decided they would no longer investigate my case and that they would not reimburse me the £4,100,” he said.
Only after the customer went to his local branch – costing him half a day of work – did the bank finally agree that he had been a victim of fraud. It finally agreed to reimburse him the second £4,100.
“The whole episode has rocked my faith in Lloyds and its security systems. I have never used telephone banking and cannot understand why this aspect of my user profile had not immediately alerted Lloyds to potential fraudulent activity," he said.
“Why did they not immediately freeze the bank account when I called up? Lloyds refused to view all of this as fraudulent activity and would not get involved in retrieving my money.
“Instead, staff tried to pressure me into admitting that I may have supplied other people with my details so that they could access my account. I am a 31-year-old professional with a master’s degree and I know how to avoid banking scams. When I explicitly said that there was no way I was involved in compromising my security details, Lloyds said that this was the end of the case.”
A Lloyds spokesman, said: “Helping keep our customers’ money safe is our priority and we have a great deal of sympathy for our customer who was the victim of a scam.
“As part of our review of this case, we recognise that our service fell below our usual standards when he reported the scam to us and we will be offering a payment in recognition of the distress and inconvenience this has caused.”
UK Finance, which represents the banking industry, advises against any transfers if you are contacted out of the blue.
In any case, the money should only ever be returned to the account it arrived from.
If in doubt, contact your bank using the number on the back of your card.
