Cruel fraudsters are conning families out of nearly £1million-a-DAY in bank transfer scams

FRAUDSTERS are conning families out of almost £1million-a-day in bank transfer scams.

Horrifying figures show how in the first six months of 2018, some £145.4million went missing.

The shocking total means £803,315 is stolen every day and some banks are refusing refunds after blaming customers for approving the transactions.

According to trade body UK Finance, just £31million of the missing £145.4million was paid back to customers.

Current legislation means that victims of these so-called “APP (authorised push payment) scams” have no legal protection to cover them for losses.

Some victims have lost their life savings due to the fraud epidemic and politicians are now calling on banks to give customers more protection.

Later this week, the payments watchdog is set to outline new rules to inform banks when victims need to be given refunds.

The rule change will say that customers who have taken reasonable care looking after their finances should be reimbursed in the event of a scam.

Almost a quarter of the total money stolen, £36.6million, was taken as a result of impersonation fraud with criminals posing as banks, HMRC or police officers.

Meanwhile, other victims have been targeted by fraudsters posing as tradespeople, such as builders.

Former NHS worker Jo Wilson, 61, had her bank account emptied of £40,000 after scammers called her pretending to be from NatWest.

The scammers tricked the panicked retiree into handing over a code generated by a card reader she had at home.

They then transferred the money in two huge lump sums, worth £19,500 and £19,600, over two days.

Gareth Shaw, money expert at consumer group Which?, said: “It’s now two years since our super-complaint highlighted the lack of protection for victims of bank transfer scams, but these shocking figures show just how widespread the problem still is.

“Banks’ efforts to date have been woefully insufficient and they have not done enough to protect their customers, who continue to lose life-changing sums of money to ever-more sophisticated crooks.

“The Payment Systems Regulator has rightly committed to introducing a reimbursement scheme for victims. It’s about time that banks step up and properly compensate customers who have lost money through no fault of their own.”

Wes Streeting, a Labour member of the Commons Treasury Committee, told the : “The rate of fraud is increasing at an alarming rate and in the vast majority of cases victims never see their money again. It’s wholly unacceptable.

“All of us must take personal responsibility for protecting ourselves against fraud, but banks must also acknowledge that scams are becoming more sophisticated.”

Another Labour member of the committee, Rushanara Ali, added: “Banks have often been too quick to blame their customers for failing to spot fraudulent activity.”

Earlier this year, banks were slammed by the Financial Ombudsman Service for blaming customers who’ve been scammed – your rights if you’ve been conned.

But victims can now take their complaints about bank transfer fraud to complaints body, the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Which? research shows that 80 per cent of people think that banks should be responsible for recouping money lost to bank transfer scams.