Yahoo Finance Millions ignoring crucial warnings when making bank transfers
Millions of Brits are ignoring vital warnings that bank account details don’t match when making a transfer, leaving them at risk of scammers, a survey revealed.
Almost one in 10 (8%) UK adults who hold a bank account admit to proceeding with a payment without making any further checks when Confirmation of Payee tells them the details aren’t an exact match.
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The Confirmation of Payee service, which launched in 2019, checks whether the details entered match the account of the person or organisation being paid.
Lloyds Bank (LLOY.L), which commissioned the research, found only around half of people (47%) say they would carry out further checks before proceeding with a transaction when presented with a "Confirmation of Payee unavailable" message, which usually means the recipient bank or payment services provider isn’t signed up to the service, so the account details can’t be automatically checked.
Ignoring this step puts bank account holders at risk of sending money to a stranger’s account by mistake or to a fraudster who has deliberately given false details.
Less than half (41%) of people say they are familiar with Confirmation of Payee and understand how it works, and only a quarter (24%) would recognise that a "No match" message means they could be getting scammed.
Liz Ziegler, fraud prevention director at Lloyds Bank, said: “Fraudsters are trying to steal people’s money all the time, they never stop. We’re talking about organised crime gangs, constantly inventing new scams to dupe victims out of their hard earned cash.
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“So when you’re making a bank transfer and a warning flashes up to say that the account details don’t match, or can’t be checked at all, that should set alarm bells ringing straight away.
"Stop, take notice and think about why that could possibly be the case. There’s a big chance it’s because you’re being scammed.
LLoyds is urging all payment providers to introduce Confirmation of Payee "as quickly as possible".
"We can see it deters criminals now, and if more people take notice of the warnings, it can help stop fraudsters in their tracks,” said Ziegler.
Many banks have signed up to a voluntary industry code which reimburses victims of bank transfer scams in situations where neither the customer nor their bank is to blame. However, concerns have been raised that the code has been applied inconsistently.
