Which? response to UK Finance figures on impersonation scams

Gareth Shaw, Head of Money at Which?, said:

“The banking industry recognises that these are sophisticated scams, with fraudsters often using meticulous research to convincingly impersonate representatives from trusted organisations and cheat people out of sometimes life-changing sums of money.

“While it’s important that people are alert to these threats, banks have a critical role to play in protecting customers from the scams that they are usually better placed to spot. Sadly, innocent victims who have lost money to bank transfer scams all too often face a lottery when they turn to their bank for help.

“A voluntary approach to tackling bank transfer fraud has failed. Banks, regulators and government must work together to make the code mandatory and ensure that strong standards on reimbursement are introduced.”

Statement