Banks unsympathetic in credit and debit card fraud cases
Recent figures relating to credit and debit card fraud have indicated that banks in the UK are increasingly unsympathetic when it comes to dealing with cases of suspected fraud against customers. According to recent figures, although card fraud has dropped over recent years – which is thought to be partly due to the introduction of chip and pin technology – the number of complaints against banks for taking no action or unsatisfactory action in cases of alleged fraud have risen.
According to recent data many consumers that approach their banks in order to claim compensation for fraudulent card activity end up having their claims dismissed, and this and other unsatisfactory actions has resulted in an increasing number of complaints about banks being filed with the financial ombudsman. In 2005 there was a forty percent rise in the number of complaints filed with the ombudsman, and last year this figure rose again by another twenty percent. However, cases of fraud through the use of credit and debit cards is said to have fallen in the early part of last year by around five percent.
Many think that the banks’ reasons for being sceptical with regards to claims regarding card fraud is that chip and pin technology has made this type of fraud more difficult, and therefore the consumer must either be involved in the fraud or must have been negligent with their chip and pin details. According to the ombudsman: “We are seeing more cases of banks saying, sometimes privately, that they suspect there has been some collusion in the fraud from the consumer. Before chip and pin was introduced banks may have been more likely to write off these costs and make good the losses to the customer.”
Consumers making claims for this type of fraud should be aware that according to the Banking Code, which the banks must follow, it is the banks’ responsibility to prove that the customer has acted negligently or irresponsibly and not the customer’s responsibility to prove that they have not acted irresponsibly.