She called the bank, which told her $500 had been withdrawn from the credit card account and $800 from a day-to-day transactional account. The bank would not refund the loss, saying she had disclosed her banking credentials in breach of its terms and conditions. As a goodwill gesture, it offered to reimburse the interest on the cash advance from the credit card account. Beatrix complained to us that she believed she was entitled to full reimbursement of her loss. She also complained about the length of time the bank had taken to investigate her case.

Our investigation

We began our investigation, only for the bank to agree to reimburse Beatrix’s full loss in acknowledgement of how long it had taken to receive a response to its investigation. Beatrix was pleased with this outcome, but she came back to us when the bank deposited only $750, not the $1,300 she believed she had lost. Further investigation revealed the bank was correct. The scammer had made the cash advance by transferring $500 from the credit card account to the day-to-day transactional account before transferring $800 from the day-to-day transactional account to an international account. She had lost $500 from the first account and $300 from the second account. Deducting $50 recovered by the bank left a balance of $750 – the amount she received from the bank.

Outcome

Beatrix was satisfied with the explanation.