So you hired someone to work for your firm and they turned out to be a sophisticated scammer who scammed your customers? And you think you shouldn’t be held liable for any money your customers lost in the scam? Well, if you’re in Australia, think again. Aisha Dow reports:
Banking giant HSBC may have to compensate customers robbed by scammers after a consumer watchdog found a victim should not have been held responsible for their $47,000 loss.
In a landmark ruling, the Australian Financial Complaints Authority rejected HSBC’s claim it was not liable when a sophisticated scammer masqueraded as a bank worker to raid the victim’s account, an argument it has used to deny compensation to other victims.
The authority also criticised HSBC’s customer service and its adversarial approach to the case.
The “lead decision” involving one of the cases is considered a change of approach for the financial services complaints body, in favour of victims, and came after an investigation by this masthead uncovered major failures in HSBC’s response to the signature scam.
Read more at The Age.
This article explains how the scam worked and is also of value to consumers to read and think about — if your bank contacts you, is it really a legitimate message from the bank or could it be from a rogue employee who was able to access their messaging system?