People who are the victims of so-called "vishing" [problem]s cannot always rely on their bank to compensate them, a study has suggested. In nearly two-thirds of cases the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) found that banks were not responsible for victims' losses. It looked at 200 examples of the telephone fraud, in which account holders lost up to £100,000 each. But it ruled that the bank was liable for those losses in only 37% of cases. In 63% of them, consumers were left without compensation, having, in effect, given their own money away. As a result it is warning that account holders need to be much more aware of the risks. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-33386934

People who are the victims of so-called "vishing" scams cannot always rely on their bank to compensate them, a study has suggested. In nearly two-thirds of cases the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS) found that banks were not responsible for victims' losses. It looked at 200 examples of the telephone fraud, in which account holders lost up to £100,000 each. But it ruled that the bank was liable for those losses in only 37% of cases. In 63% of them, consumers were left without compensation, having, in effect, given their own money away. As a result it is warning that account holders need to be much more aware of the risks. "We really want to share what we are seeing in the complaints we handle, and encourage people to get talking about scams with their friends and relatives so they become more alert to the risks," said Caroline Wayman, the chief ombudsman. More ...

I was recently made aware of an attempt by fraudsters to obtain my relatives debit card details. MR is over 70 years old. The call came one Saturday night at about 9pm and he used MR's name. The caller identified himself as a detective at Paddington Green police station and said they had apprehended someone on suspicion of debit card fraud. He asked that MR check to see if he still had his debit card in his possession. He confirmed that he did. The caller said he suspected MR's card had been, or was about to be, cloned but he needed to verify this by confirming the card account number. Luckily, MR smelled a rat for various reasons and said his card was for a NatWest a/c which was untrue. The caller said, "Yes, that's the one." and tried to get MR to give the card details so he could avoid his a/c being emptied. When MR asked a few more questions, the caller passed the phone to someone else who continued to try and reassure MR that they were genuine police but they needed to act quickly to avoid MR losing his money. They obviously felt they were not going to get MR to fall for it and said they'd make enquiries and call back. They never did. This topic has been the subject of various reports in the media recently and the sc@m has been labelled VISHING, short for Voice Phishing. The Daily Telegraph reported the matter last Saturday - https://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/10269196/Elderly-hit-by-new-telephone-[problem].html&sa=U&ei=W_QoUtSrAYap4gTLioHABw&ved=0CAcQFjAA&client=internal-uds-cse&usg=AFQjCNG-Rku_cMOvrlnlz8nJkc4QfnvoMw It may be wise to warn elderly relatives that they should speak to someone they know and trust before giving out any details. The press reports that many folk have had money taken and accounts emptied as a result of this tactic.