‘My bank did not stop £6,500 payment to holiday scammers despite my pleas’

theguardian.com:

A woman scammed out of £6,500 while trying to book a Greek holiday villa has described begging her bank to halt the money transfer she had made to the fraudsters, only to be told by staff that there was nothing they could do.

Londoner Sarah Graham* says that, looking back on it, she cannot believe she fell for a holiday property scam that Guardian Money first highlighted in 2013. She says she feels let down by the holiday accommodation firm Vrbo but even more so by the bank.

With Easter only weeks away and at a time when many people’s thoughts are turning to summer getaways, her case is a warning to anyone thinking of booking holiday accommodation that they need to be on their guard, as the sector has been increasingly targeted by fraudsters.

Here we outline what happened to Graham and offer our tips and advice for how to keep yourself safe.

Graham says that for more than six hours after she had authorised a €7,155 (£6,500) payment to a Bank of America account in the US, the money continued to sit in her First Direct bank account. When she received an email an hour after making the payment warning her that the villa’s listing on Vrbo had been removed for security reasons, she immediately phoned First Direct back to halt the transfer.

But she says that despite her pleas, the bank’s 24-hour calls staff could not, or would not, intervene. The money finally left her account just before the fraud team started work the following morning at 8am.

It arguably makes something of a mockery of First Direct’s claim that it has “an ‘always on’ approach to fraud prevention”.

Her case is a reminder to others booking holiday accommodation to only use authorised payment systems that protect your money if the listing turns out to be fraudulent.

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