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* Fake refunds, donations catching customers out
* Some banks operating 24/7 anti-fraud teams
* Customers more vulnerable than ever, bankers say
By Lawrence White and Sinead Cruise
LONDON, March 24 (Reuters) - UK banks are stepping up fraud
prevention measures to protect customers from scammers eager to
exploit the coronavirus pandemic with a whole range of new
tricks, including fake sales of medical supplies and bogus
government relief schemes.
With British households effectively on lockdown, some banks
said customers had already been caught out by fraudsters posing
as banks, government and even health service providers to
persuade victims to hand over passwords or other sensitive data.
Barclays, HSBC, Lloyds Banking Group
and Royal Bank of Scotland have launched social
media campaigns to flag ploys. Metro Bank said its
fraud team was still operating a 24-hour, seven-day service to
help affected customers.
The banks said scammers were using a range of methods to
prey on people, with common "phishing" emails, authorised push
payments (APP) and Buyer Seller scams on the rise, alongside
more sophisticated "payment diversion" frauds, designed to coax
businesses to part with large sums of cash.
One such example flagged to Reuters called on business
owners to make a 25,000 pounds ($29,370) payment to a fake
government support initiative called "The Central Employers
Scheme" set up to cover sick pay during the outbreak.
A UK banking source said another victim made a significant
payment to a "COVOID Bond", also fraudulently linked to the UK
government.
The banks said such typographical errors were often made
deliberately by scammers to lend authenticity to the request,
particularly if the sender was posing as a CEO or colleague
demanding the recipient took quick action.
The UK banking source said another customer was persuaded
via email to send a cross-border payment to a scam account after
fraudsters said the legitimate account had been "frozen by the
Greek Government."
"This virus won't stop bad actors and fraudsters, if
anything, it will encourage them. I am much more nervous about
this today than ever," Richard Meddings, chairman of retail bank
TSB told Reuters.
"People will be at home, receiving phone calls and texts
from people who claim to be their banks, asking them about
cancelled events and travel plans and offering refunds. Fraud
can only go up under these kinds of circumstances," he said.
Figures published earlier this month by trade body UK
Finance showed around a quarter of the 456 million pounds
($535.2 million) of APP fraud was returned to victims across the
industry last year. TSB, the only UK bank to offer a Fraud
Refund Guarantee, has returned 99% of losses to its customers
since April.
Banks said they are working hard to get the word out.
"We have increased our warning messages across all of our
communication channels and as the situation evolves we continue
to review and update these warnings," an RBS spokeswoman said.
"We also ask that customers spread the word amongst family
and friends, especially the more vulnerable in our society."
A tweet from Lloyds warning customers of the dangers had
over 1 million views by Sunday evening, in a sign of the level
of public concern.
Action Fraud, the national fraud and cyber crime reporting
centre, said the majority of reports it had received in recent
days related to online shopping scams where people have ordered
protective face masks and hand sanitiser which have never
arrived.
"The advice is simple, think very carefully before you hand
over your money, and don't give out your personal details unless
you are sure who you are dealing with," Graeme Biggar, Director
General of the National Economic Crime Centre said.
Some European banks are also concerned their workforces
could fall foul of fraudsters.
A staff memo sent by Italy's UniCredit earlier
this week warned of "ongoing campaigns" against the bank's IT
security and urged staff to be extra vigilant of incoming email,
SMS and WhatsApp messages that referred to coronavirus.
"Customer data safety and security is UniCredit's top
priority. As always, we continue to take and apply all the
necessary measures to protect our customers and systems," the
bank said.
($1 = 0.8512 pounds)
(Additional reporting by Valentina Za in Milan and Clara Denina
in London, editing by Jane Merriman)
