17-23 March 2025
Small business defrauded out of €36,000 after falling victim to phishing scam
Martin, the business owner, submitted a complaint to the FSPO in May 2022, as he felt the bank had failed to act promptly to stop the fund transfers.
The fraud occurred on a Monday afternoon. Olivia, who deals with accounts and payments for the business, received an email, supposedly from Martin, requesting that she forward some monies to a UK sterling bank account. Martin was away on business in the UK at that time, and so Olivia transferred approximately €15,000 to the account details given.
The following morning, Tuesday, Olivia received a second email requesting that she transfer a second payment of €21,000, which she did. That afternoon, she realised that the emails had been fake and were not sent by Martin. She contacted the bank at 2pm and commented that the Monday transaction was still showing “black” on the online banking portal. Olivia asked that it be cancelled immediately. She was hopeful that the payment could be retrieved as, historically, previous genuine international transfers, “whilst showing as being in the recipient account” would not be available for withdrawal for some days after.
The bank stated that the funds had cleared that morning.
Martin says that along with the incident being reported to the bank at 2pm on the day of the second transfer, one of the UK based business managers reported the fraud directly to the beneficiary UK bank by phone at 22:00 on Tuesday evening. He was told that it could “see the transaction” and that a hold would be put on it, pending follow-up from the business's own bank. Martin believed that there was sufficient time to hold these funds. This would have allowed the necessary procedure to be followed and most importantly, the funds to be returned, at least, for the second transaction. Martin was told, however, that the bank could not stop the funds being withdrawn and the transferred money was lost.
He raised a complaint, asking that the bank investigate the matter and explain why it could not have done more that day. He was not happy with the bank's responses, saying they were delayed and inadequate. He contacted the FSPO to submit a complaint.
The complaint was forwarded for formal investigation in the FSPO. A Summary of the Complaint was issued to the bank, requesting that it respond to a set of questions and submit copies of requested documentation. In the bank's response it acknowledged its poor customer service and responses to Martin. While it could not retrieve any of the payments, it apologised for its delays in responding to Martin's queries and for not providing requested information when asked. The bank offered him €4,000 in respect of the 'customer service’ provided. While Martin was disappointed that the bank had not been able to stop the payments to the fraudsters, he accepted the bank's offer, and the complaint was closed.