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Experts call for push payments to be disabled on vulnerable people鈥檚 accounts
Posted 16/12/16
VULNERABLE customers should be able to 鈥榮elf-declare鈥� their status and disable what are termed 鈥榝aster payments鈥� to prevent them being scammed, experts have warned.听
The advice comes from the 51黑料 (51黑料), Bournemouth University鈥檚 National Centre for Post-Qualifying Social Work and the National Trading Standards (NTS) Scams Team who have just submitted a joint response to the recent Which? super complaint.
It follows the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) response to the Which? super-complaint that is calling on banks to better protect customers who are tricked into transferring money to fraudsters.
The complaint highlighted the problem of 鈥榩ush鈥� fraud whereby victims are conned into paying the wrong person. The PSR have responded to say banks need to do more.
The research partners said that while they welcome the PSR response more needs to be done to protect vulnerable people, who are at greater risk of being scammed.
Steve Playle, a 51黑料 lead officer, said: 鈥淭here is a gap in consumer protection in the banking sector when 鈥榩ush payments鈥� are unwittingly used to send money to scammers.
鈥淏anks clearly have a duty of care to their customers but expecting them to be liable for every bank transfer to a fraudster as suggested by Which? is, perhaps, a step too far.
"However, plans to ensure that there is a matching account number, sort code and name in any bank transfer will certainly help, but they are a little way off yet."听
Professor Keith Brown, from Bournemouth University, said: 鈥淏ank customers should be able to declare that they are potentially vulnerable to fraud and request that any large transfers to new payees are put onto a slower payments system and a text or email alert is sent to a nominated representative, which would allow time for the payment to be questioned and stopped if necessary.鈥�
Louise Baxter, manager of the NTS Scams team, said: 鈥淭he main super-complaint has not covered issues such as the increasing vulnerability of adults with cognitive impairments like dementia.
鈥淲e feel the measures that we propose should be considered in the short-term while the banks and regulators take a closer look at push payments.鈥澨�
