Do you have an issue you need put right? Which? is here to help get your consumer problems sorted.
Dear Which?,
I fell for a scam on the internet which involved fake investments.
I ended up sending £11,000 from my Ulster Bank account and £6,000 from Santander.
I did try to halt the payments in the branch when I realised that I was being scammed, but the branch staff were of little help.
They told me there was nothing I could do and that I’d have to contact the bank’s fraud team by phone – but wouldn’t allow me to use their phone system.
Is there anything I can do?
Name and location withheld
Put to Rights
Mike Croxford, Which? Money Helpline adviser, says:
It may be possible to get your money back, as both banks should have done more to protect you from transferring money to the scammer.
You should complain to the banks and, if they reject your complaints or don’t respond within eight weeks, go to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).
Both Ulster Bank and Santander are signed up to the Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scam Code, which requires banks to provide effective warnings to customers, act quickly when a scam is reported and reimburse customers who aren’t to blame.
Ulster Bank failed to provide an effective warning, despite your payments going to a bank account in Colombia, which was not a usual transaction for you.
It said that it had tried to contact you about the transactions, but allowed the payment to proceed even though it wasn’t able to get your confirmation…
