Santander has issued an urgent warning to all account holders to help prevent fraud and dodgy scams.
It also warned its fellow banks that a specific set of rules should be followed in order to prevent fraud operations where victims are tricked into handing over their cash to criminals. It comes after it was discovered that more than 70 per cent of purchase scams originate on social media platforms.
Speaking of one case, Santander said that one 61-year-old woman was persuaded to make a string of payments to someone she thought she had made friends with while playing an online game. Overall, she handed over £80,000 and was pressured to lie about the reasons behind the payments, the Liverpool Echo reports.
The bank noted that the woman became victim of a scam after she began to experience financial difficulties. The woman was refunded all her money and was referred to a specialist customer support team to check on her welfare and support her in the future.
Now, Santander is asking banks to feature more consistent data sharing and mandatory use of confirmation of payee - a fraud prevention system which allows customers to know the name of the person they think they're paying money to. The bank also said the Online Safety Bill should be brought forward while stating that more focus should be placed on how victims are reached out to by scammers.
Enrique Alvarez, head of everyday banking at Santander UK, said: "The sheer scale and value of APP fraud can detract from the real impact of these crimes on individual consumers, who can lose more than just money - their confidence and mental health can also be significantly harmed.
"Unfortunately, we see this far too often, and it is time for us all to act together. The criminals who perpetrate these scams shouldn't be getting away with it.
"As our report shows, there are changes the banking industry can implement - but there are other changes that are clearly outside the banking industry's control - like how fraudsters often reach their victims in the first place. We must all come together and address the issue because currently, the only real winners are the fraudsters."
Under recent proposals from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR), banks are forced to reimburse anyone who loses more than £100 to bank transfer or payment fraud, except in highly special circumstances. A statement from the PSR said: "We want people to be better protected if they are targeted by a scammer and have already set out proposals designed to give much greater and consistent levels of protection for victims of APP scams.
"Financial firms have to act to prevent fraud, and these proposals will also provide strong incentives on banks to do more to detect and prevent APP fraud in the first place. As soon as current legislation is updated, we will implement our rules as quickly as possible.
"In October, we also directed an additional 400 financial firms to implement the name-checking service, confirmation of payee. This will see more widespread adoption of the protections available to people making payments."
A Government spokesperson said: "Financial scams can have a devastating impact on people's lives - and those responsible often prey on the most vulnerable. We are sticking up for victims by legislating to ensure the regulator can act to make banks reimburse people who have lost money through no fault of their own."
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