Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Firstly, an instance of how even the once upright Times is descending to levels of scaremongering worthy of The Express and The Mail.

Today's front page headline reads Victims of internet bank fraud will have to pay up and the first sentence is BANKS will no longer honour the debts of victims of internet fraud after a sudden rise in attacks against online accounts, The Times has learnt. "Gulp", I thought, "One slip and I'll lose my life savings!" However, if you plough on to para 7, it starts hinting that this is only likely to occur some time in the future.

Now, go to the corresponding BBC article and you find the headline Banks could refuse fraud refunds (my emphasis) with a first sentence of People considered to have ignored safety advice before losing money in online banking scams could soon be denied compensation by banks.

Ah well, yet further proof of the BBC being a falsifier of news and containing only lies, as many people seem to complain.

Anyway, back to the subject matter. The BBC site gave
a link to the Bank Safe Online site which gives advice on the subject. This gives a further link to a site containing a test on your knowledge of "phishing". I only got a miserable 50%. I'd say that it's much harder than you think to distinguish the scam from the legitimate.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

I got 80%, but the 2 I got wrong I said were phishing fraud, so at least it was an error on the cautious side!

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

I was lucky. I got caught by a lebanese-loop card catcher at an ATM a little while ago. I got 100% back and fairly quickly (I think I got both my ATM and POS withdrawls within 3 weeks), which I thought was really good. What annoyed me at the time was that the police and the bank had no interest in prosecuting or investigating. I told them to grab the CCTV for the garage where one of my POS withdrawls went through and they could have got the thief's picture. They never bothered.

I am kind of split over this though. I personally would never fall for a phishing scam, so I could say "yeah that's fair", but I think to someone who isn't so computer savvy, it could be very hard to detect these scams. I think the best thing would be to stress that computer banking is for moderate-to-advanced and PC users and higher, and anyone who isn't that advanced should use a branch. All these refunds end up getting passed back to all of us in the end.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

The emails should never be sent in the first place - that's the issue to address, not whether victims should be compensated by the bank or through private claims in the courts. Users are really ignorant of the dangers and facts though - it's frightening.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Me to Capital 1 and Bank of America

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

The test is useless - the emails usually do look genuine but if you look at the raw format of the message you'll instantly see they're not. That test doesn't allow you to view the code - they could all be genuine :shrug:

[edit] I got 60% by random ticking

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Well I looked hard and concentrated - and got 100% right! Mind you I like to thing I am careful with these things!

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Just noticed the quiz. I got 80%, but it is hard to tell with pictures. The easiest way to check is by the links in the email.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

But if you look at the bottom of the picture it shows you the http of the key link in the message. Probably as much as average joe could be expected to understand.

But if you have moved to an online service, they do need to push information to you (e.g. you have a new statement), that requires emails to be sent.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

It shows the text in the onMouseOver statement for the hyperlink, or the default status bar text for the page. That's partly why people should ditch Outlook (Express) and choose a safer email client.


I have used online banking for a number of years, without problem and without ever been emailed by my bank. I don't see that there's any reason to be emailed - everyone should check their bank account at least once a week. Around pay day I'm always checking :D

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I never follow logon links in e-mails, I go direct to the site.

Any e-mail that asks me to "verify" my details gets binned, end of story.

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I didn't believe any of them, TBH.

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Same here.

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I fell victim to this - the scammers cleaned out my overdraft & the bank refuse to investigate.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Anything like this, I go direct to the bank/ cc company's main site and see what it has on there if I'm at all interested/ worried.

I wouldn't trust *anything* that comes via an e-mail asking me to click on a link!

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Sounds the best course of advice for all such emails, don't touch any link with a bargepole and go directly to the the site. However, one question occurs to me. If you email the site and ask about the suspect email how likely are most companies to reply to you in a helpful fashion?

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

That is the best advice to follow :tu:

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Personally, I am wary of any type of internet banking that does not rely on something that is physically present in your house. Be it a list of codes that is sent to you by the bank, or some code generating gizmo (like my gf has: she sticks her bank card into the gizmo, out comes a code which you then enter on the website). This way, if someone gets hold of your passwords through phishing or a key stroke logger, they will still be unable to get at your money unless they also break into your house to get at the codes (or intercept them in the mail).

An internet banking account that only relies on passwords will always be open to vulnerabilities imo.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Which bank is this, and why do they refuse to investigate?

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

This is an ongoing problem. I had an overdraft for £887. My account got hacked, and I then I suddenly had a credit balance of 9p through no fault of my own. The bank refuse to accept that I still owe them £887, and what is worse they are failing to add daily interest.

I no longer get the comforting daily threatening letter, and furthermore they are now honouring my direct debits. If this continues, then I will not be losing £100 in daily admin charges, and before you know it all of the recognised Credit Agencies will decline to list me as a defaulter and my whole existance will be ruined.

If I had known things would get this bad, I would have defaulted the automatic minimum payment scheme to one of my obscure credit cards in the hope that my accumulated credit balance of £37 (£3.70 per month over 10 months since I last used it) might have slipped into the red and put me back on a bad rating.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Come on Dan, it's Nikko, nuff said :LOL:

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:bigcry:

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

:PP:

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

More true for a bank statement, but for a credit card? I personally don't feel the need to see the debt I'm running up on it daily.

On the bank account, with First Directs Text Message Banking I don't need to long in nearly as often these days as this gives the last 5 transactions 3 times a week, so I can see everything going out (not much coming in!).

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Ah - my Dad taught me that if you can't pay for it, you don't buy it. I've never had a credit card or purchased anything on credit :angel:

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Which, no offence, makes you even less of an average internet banking user.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

Probably, though it does mean I can retire at 55 instead of working myself to death to pay off the debts and mortgage :PP:

:D

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

It's good advice up to a point, but if you *can* afford it, don't forget that Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act gives you protection on any item between £100 and £30,000 by making the card company jointly and severally liable for the completion of the contract you enter into (unless you use an "agent" like Paypal, but I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole!)

It's something worth considering.

Re: Bank Fraud Compensation
 

As paypal is not even money - but "electronic money", it also falls outside the deposit protection scheme in the UK, so summarise, if a bank fails, you get the first £8000 of your money back - guaranteed, if paypal fails you get 0.

So if you use paypal don't leave money in it.