Bank had no reason to suspect customer was victim of a job scam

Categories:
Fraud & scams,
Summary:
In August 2023, Minnie responded to a message online about a job and was told the position involved completing a set number of actions on a website, each of which would earn her a commission. She made 14 transactions totalling $58,000 using her Visa card to cryptocurrency exchanges Binance and Mercuryo. Visa sent codes to her mobile and she entered them to authorise the transactions. The virtual currency she had purchased was then moved into a virtual wallet connected to the job. But a few days later, she discovered she had been caught in a job scam. She wanted the bank to reimburse her for her loss, but the bank declined to do so, saying she had authorised the transactions and the bank had no reason to suspect a scam.
Published:
October 2024

Our investigation

We considered whether anything about the transactions should have alerted the bank to the possibility that Minnie was being defrauded. If a bank detects such a “red flag”, it is obliged to make inquiries about the transaction and, if warranted, warn the customer. A failure to do so may make the bank liable for the loss. However, we could find no such warning signs. The payments were made to genuinecryptocurrency companies, so there was nothing about where the funds were going that ought to have triggered any alert. That said, two of the 14 transactions did trigger an alert because of the number of transactions made online within a short period. The bank sent text messages to check Minnie had made these transactions.She replied saying she had.

Outcome 

The bank did offer Minnie a reduced interest rate on her credit card because she had been the victim of a scam, and she accepted the offer. The complaint was settled on this basis.

 

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