Rugby’s Member of Parliament Mark Pawsey has raised the issue of online fraud in Parliament after a local resident contacted him about her experience of falling victim to an “authorised push payment scam.”
Anne Gleed, who runs her own interior design business in Rugby, attempted to purchase a car from Mercedes Benz for her business. However, during the negotiation for this purchase her email account was hacked and fraudsters, posing as representatives of Mercedes Benz, provided Ms Gleed with false bank account details. As a result, Ms Gleed made a payment of £12,540 to the fraudsters’ account with Barclays Bank. Although the fraud was identified that same day and Ms Gleed contacted both her bank and Barclays Bank, all her money had already been transferred by the fraudsters. At this time, Ms Gleed has not yet had any of her funds recovered.
When this issue was drawn to Mark’s attention by Anne, he immediately contacted both her bank, Royal Bank of Scotland, and Barclays Bank. Mark has now raised the issue of push payment scams in Parliament during Home Office Questions. Mark highlighted the risks posed to customers by these increasingly complex scams and the Minister for Security, Ben Wallace MP, confirmed that The Payment Systems Regulator, Joint Fraud Taskforce and the National Crime Agency are investing in new technology to improve the speed of repatriating funds.
Commenting after Home Office Questions, Mark said:
“I was very concerned to hear about the fraud that Ms Gleed has fallen victim to and it is clear that these types of sophisticated criminal acts are becoming increasingly common. Alongside the investment to which the Minister referred, I am pleased that the Payment Systems Regulator is consulting on ways to mitigate the impact of these scams and ensure that customers like Ms Gleed are protected.”
Mark continued:
“Modern online banking can be very convenient for all of us, but its increasing use is allowing for new types of fraud, such as the authorised push payment fraud which Ms Gleed was a victim of. I would urge anyone using online banking to ensure that that they always confirm where they are sending their money, either by sending a small payment first or calling the payee rather than relying on email correspondence.”
Anne Gleed added:
“It was such an exciting time for me to be able to purchase this new vehicle with the profits from all my hard work and perseverance. I wrote to Mark as it became clear the banks had no interest in refunding my money or finding out where my money had gone. The fact that people like myself are not entitled to protection from the banks against fraudsters is completely out of date in an age where 100% of my business & personal banking is done using a computer. Measures should be put in to place to stop these people from destroying small business such as my own.”