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Two people lost money to nearly identical bank-card scams, but only one was reimbursed, highlighting a major difference in protections for victims in the United Kingdom and Canada.
Here’s what to know
British victim Samantha Bradshaw recovered the equivalent of nearly $21,000 from her bank. Toronto resident Asif Mohammed, however, was left to absorb his losses.
Bradshaw said she heard that copies of her bank cards were being used in an attempted car purchase. That claim came in a phone call from someone posing as a bank representative, according to CBC’s Marketplace, as detailed in a CBC News (@CBCNews) YouTube report.
Bradshaw believed that a courier who came to collect her bank cards was acting on behalf of the police to prevent the theft from continuing.
In Toronto, a courier collected Mohammed’s bank card as part of the same setup, which also began with a phone call.
Despite the similarities, Mohammed received no reimbursement.
More background
Britain’s reimbursement rules gave Marketplace a way to examine how banks respond to fraud when they must repay victims.
The investigation found that banks’ action against scams was tied to who absorbed the losses. Making a bank financially responsible gives it a reason to act, rather than leaving customers to pay.
As Marketplace pointed out in response to a British phone scammer’s defense of his theft, banks in the United Kingdom compensate customers for losses. When the scammer was confronted in the report, he claimed that banks would be the ones who pay rather than the people he scammed.
The scam relies on two impersonations. First, someone posing as a bank representative creates a sense of urgency by reporting a threat. Then, a supposed police courier arrives to collect the bank cards.
While that physical handoff may seem reassuring, it is another part of the deception.
What’s being done?
That protection can extend to someone deceived into surrendering their cards, as in Bradshaw’s case. Extreme customer negligence is the exception to banks’ repayment obligation under the United Kingdom law described by Marketplace.
As the video report’s caption described, Canadian customers lose out because “banks have no obligation to reimburse clients.”
Marketplace also pressed Minister of Finance François-Philippe Champagne about whether banks or telecommunications companies should bear responsibility in Canada. While he addressed prevention and the involvement of multiple industries, he did not identify an equivalent Canadian reimbursement requirement.
For Bradshaw, recovering her money did not erase the distress of discovering she had been scammed.
“It’s that moment where you get sweaty palms, you feel sick, you’re in complete disbelief,” she said.
Where can I learn more?
Other victims of bank impersonation scams have faced large losses with no guarantee of reimbursement.
• In Canada, a TD Bank customer was denied reimbursement after losing $9,800 to scammers.
• Ohio Huntington customers said fraud claims remained pending after losses reached $40,000.
• A New York woman handed over $60,000 after receiving a fake bank text.
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