The next morning, Kylie received another call from the same bank number repeating the previous day’s call with a second Airbnb transaction and moving $10,000 more into her “safe” account.

Kyla’s total loss was $35,000. Kyla asked the bank to reimburse her, saying she firmly believed she was talking to a representative of the bank, but the bank refused. The bank offered $8,750 as a goodwill gesture. 

Our investigation

We found Kyla was not responsible for the first Airbnb transaction, but was responsible for the second. Banks must reimburse customers for losses suffered as a result of transactions made without their authority – as long as they were not dishonest or negligent, complied with the bank’s terms and conditions, and took reasonable steps to protect their banking. We found Kyla did not act negligently in disclosing the code for the first Airbnb transaction, but had done so with the second transaction; by then, she already had her suspicions about the caller’s legitimacy.

Kyla made the payments to the “safe” account using her usual internet banking log-in details, and these did not trigger the bank’s fraud detection system. Given the system was not triggered, the bank had no reason, in our view, to suspect a scam. In other words, the transactions raised no red flags that should have prompted the bank to make inquiries and, if warranted, warn Kyla that she might be caught up in a scam.

Outcome

The bank offered to reimburse $8,803 for the first Airbnb transaction. Kyla accepted the offer.