A victim of a push scam that caused her to lose £10,000 of her savings has received a refund from Halifax - of £1.27.
As reported earlier this week by FTAdviser, Ms E, who was duped by a clever three-stage authorised push payment fraud into transferring £9,970 to a fraudulent account, had initially been told she would not be compensated by Halifax Bank.
Ms E said she was distracted at the time by the sudden hospitalisation of her grandmother and "put under pressure" by the scam caller - who pretended to be a senior official from HM Revenue & Customs.
She said even though a warning notification had popped up when she went to make the transfer, the caller explained this away and she was "caught in the moment".
She said she had also been terrified that she would lose her money or get into trouble, after the thief persuaded her that her national insurance number had been compromised.
But because she had bypassed the screen, an investigation into her complaint by Halifax said the bank had provided an adequate level of warning, and therefore Ms E would receive nothing.
However, on March 14, she received a text from Halifax, stating that she would get a partial refund. "Excited", she checked the letter from the bank and logged into her bank account.
The money that was returned to her was £1.24.
She said: "Turns out the "partial refund" consists of £1.24. Quite insulting I have to say."
Ms E, who is switching banks after five years to TSB, which carries a guarantee for victims of clever APP scams, said she had been "disappointed" by the way in which Halifax handled her report of the fraud and her complaint since.
A spokesperson for Halifax stated the money refunded was "the money that was recovered from the receiving account".
simoney.kyriakou@ft.com
