Our investigation

We looked into the transactions and found nothing that would have suggested to the bank that Xanthe was a potential victim of a scam. Her initial transaction of $1,500 had been to a legitimate cryptocurrency trading company. The scammer used a fake website to show an immediate apparent profit of $400. This encouraged her to keep “investing” until she had purchased $45,000 of cryptocurrency through the same company. The funds were then transferred – by what means we could not establish – to another legitimate cryptocurrency trader the scammer had access to. The transactions Xanthe made to the first cryptocurrency trader had not triggered any red flags to the bank because they had all been made to a legitimate cryptocurrency trading company. Although the transactions of $5,000 over consecutive days were outside her usual pattern of spending, the earlier smaller transaction of $1,500 had created a banking transaction history indicating she was a purchaser of cryptocurrency. This meant that the later, larger amounts did not trigger any red flags.

We did, however, find that the bank’s investigation of her case was far from satisfactory. She had contacted the bank’s fraud team on numerous occasions over four months seeking an update on its investigation. The bank provided no information and failed to call back when asked. The bank offered her $2,000 and an apology for its poor service and the stress and inconvenience it had caused.

Outcome

Xanthe accepted the bank's offer.