If you authorise a payment that ends up in the hands of the fraudsters, the banks will say “we will try and get your back, but if we can't, you have lost it”. It is because the bank has not breached the rules, you have, they say “you did not take reasonable care”. There are two main methods, number 2 has been in the media for many years so it is included as a reminder; but I want to concentrate on the first one, as many people don’t realise the level of sophistication the fraudsters go to. These are also known as ‘push payment scams’.

1- How it happens

The fraudster will hack and intercept emails either at your end or one of your contacts, waiting for way in. They will wait until you are in correspondence about paying bills, e.g. your builder, tradesman or frankly any company that you are receiving invoices from. You will either receive an email asking you to change the bank details or they will actually edit an invoice attachment with the new bank details. REMEMBER banks still don’t verify the name on the account so you can just type anything.  Yes they can edit a PDF document coming to you, this has been featured a few times on Radio 4’s MoneyBox program during September 2018.

Email passwords

In today’s world we need many passwords. Your email password is just as important as your banking log in. REMEMBER if your email is compromised, a fraudster can re-set just about any of your other passwords which will ruin your life.

Tips:

• Make sure your email password is complex and completely unique to anything else you use.
• VERIFY any bank detail changes via another means, in person, by phone, sms BUT not by email.
• Send a £1 test first, then verify its arrival via another means except email.
• I do this for every new payee I set up, a new credit card, a tradesman, or even just a one off service, e.g. beauty treatment.
• Also every time bank details change, I send a £1 test. Apart from anything else, it is reassurance you actually entered the correct details otherwise it is an expensive lesson.

2- How it happens

The fraudster who calls you, will supply any number of reasons, but in the end they are asking you to transfer money into another account in “your name”; they will words like “safe guard your money” (repeatedly) or “holding account”.

Tips:

• Banks will NEVER ask you to transfer money into any other account. Many online banking gives warnings when doing large or repeated transfers.
• Banks just simply do not have enough account numbers with a growing population to use every time there is a fraud, especially as we use less cash.
• NEVER rely on a call from your bank as genuine – assume it is suspicious until proven otherwise.
• Always call the bank yourself – never with the number they supply.
• Use another phone – or wait 30mins before using the same landline phone (remember: on a landline, the line always stays active until the caller disconnects. They use cunning tricks and play a sound that mimics a dial tone so you think you are making a fresh call.
• Under Radio 4 on my web site you can listen to a genuine fraud call caught by a phone recording

If you fall victim to any fraud:

• Contact your bank immediately (usually their fraud dept.), they may be able to recover some money that has not been relayed on.
• Change passwords immediately.
• Contact action fraud 0300 123 2040, they may or may not be able to help your case, but the more information they have, will help stop others; your family could be targeted next.

Trap:

As the fraudsters are steeling thousands with a variety of ever complex methods, so they will invest hours of time to make it look or sound genuine; they are more sophisticated than you can imagine. A could tip in life is, 'if you can think of it, so can they'.

Update: 

I heard on the MoneyBox program (29-Sep-18), the banks are working on a new 'Code of Practice'; people who took all reasonable care, may be refunded their money. Warning; it will not be in legislation, so if the bank can prove they are not at fault, you still may not be reimbursed you losses. The AIM is to educate people so they are not defrauded in the first place.