£4,500 stolen from two accounts: Halifax refunds, Nationwide refuses

- Click here for the best of today's personal finance

Fraudsters are targeting elderly and vulnerable bank customers with sophisticated telephone scams – and some banks are refusing to cover the losses.

There is no industry-wide protocol for dealing with telephone fraud, so customers are left to battle it out with their bank for compensation.

Telegraph Money has received a number of letters in recent weeks from readers who have been the victim of telephone fraud, known as “vishing”, where criminals persuade victims to hand over large sums of cash.

In one case, a reader lost £2,500 from her Halifax account and £2,000 from her Nationwide account in a single scam. Halifax covered her losses, but Nationwide refused. In another case, HSBC refused to compensate a 93-year-old victim after criminals stole £9,000, even though she met all the bank’s criteria for compensation.

The 'suckers list'

Last year fraudsters stole £24m through phone scams, up from just £7m the previous year. Unfortunately for the victims, they often find that their names are shared with other criminals on so-called “sucker lists”, making them even more vulnerable to further scams.

For this reason we have not named the readers involved. However, the details of their cases are strikingly similar and serve as a stark warning. Mrs A was tricked into handing over £2,500 from her Halifax account and £2,000 from her Nationwide account by fraudsters posing as police.

She received a telephone call from a man claiming to be a police officer from the serious fraud unit at Belgravia police station. He gave his name as Det Con Hendricks Woods and a fake police ID number, then explained that her bank cards had been cloned and that staff at Halifax and Nationwide were involved.

“He asked me to call the police to check his identity,” Mrs A said. “I put down the phone, dialled 999 and was put through to the police who confirmed this.”

What she didn’t realise was that the fraudsters had kept her phone line open so that rather than hanging up the phone and dialling 999, she had, in fact, remained connected to the criminals.

^{One victim received a telephone call from a man claiming to be a police officer}

A short time later, the fraudster called back and instructed her to go to her local Halifax and Nationwide branches and withdraw £2,500 cash from each account to assist the police with their investigations.

She took £2,500 from her Halifax account and, due to the daily limit, £2,000 from her Nationwide account.

“At no time did the cashiers question why I took that amount, nor did they warn me of scams or fraudulent activities,” she said.

Later that afternoon a man arrived at her house saying he was a police officer and collected the cash. It was only later that evening that she realised it could have been a scam and called the police.

Halifax refunded the money within 10 days, but Nationwide refused. A spokesman said that the cashier had asked her the reason for the withdrawal. “Had she explained the situation, the staff would have advised her not to hand the money over,” she said. “As she authorised the payment, the society is not liable for the loss.”

Mrs G, 93, was targeted by a similar scam. She received a telephone call from a man claiming to be the police who said they needed her help to catch fraudsters within HSBC.

He told her to phone HSBC immediately on the phone number listed on her debit card, and not to inform anyone of the operation, including family members.

Again, the phone line was kept open while she thought she was dialling HSBC’s number. She was told that the police had been trying for 18 months to secure evidence against three bank staff who were dealing in counterfeit notes. They urged her to go to the branch and withdraw £9,000, adding that fingerprints on the notes would allow them to make arrests.

She did this, and was told to hand the money over to a courier who would give a special password. “I was so convinced of the validity of all this by all of the people who took part that I actually expected to hear news the next day of the arrests,” she said. “I didn’t realise I had been hoodwinked in such a masterly way until later.”

HSBC refused to reimburse her for her losses, even after her son met with a branch manager to complain.

Following questions from Telegraph Money, however, HSBC reversed its stance and agreed to refund the £9,000 in full.

“Unfortunately, when Mrs G reported this incident to her local branch, it wasn’t escalated to our fraud team. In this case, given all of the factors, we would have covered her losses and have now done so. We have apologised to Mrs G for the problems she had in dealing with HSBC, which is not reflective of how we wish to treat our customers.”

Financial Fraud Action UK warned to always wait five minutes after a suspicious call to allow the phone line to clear properly, or to contact police or your bank immediately on another phone line if possible.

- nicole.blackmore@telegraph.co.uk