While fraud and scams are on the increase on the Web, twelve banks singled out by UFC-Que Choisir systematically refuse to reimburse their injured customers. An illegal practice…
Online scams and fraud have become commonplace, and unfortunately a lot of people are being tricked. Some have the unpleasant surprise of waking up one morning and discovering that large sums have disappeared from their bank account. They then turn to their bank to ask for explanations and, above all, to refute having made these transfers. And this is where there is a problem. Indeed, UFC-Que Choisir, which analyzed no less than 4,300 reports of online fraud made between 2019 and 2022, found that twelve of the largest establishments – La Banque Postale, Crédit Agricole, Banque Populaire, BNP Paribas, Societe Generale, CIC, LCL, Boursorama, ING, Nickel, Cetelem and Floa Banque – did not comply with the law by refusing so “systematic” to reimburse the victims. The consumer association has therefore filed a complaint against the twelve establishments for misleading commercial practices, as it announces in its June 28 press release.
Customers usually notice that purchases have been made online without their knowledge with their credit card or by transfer from their online bank account. And this happens much more often than you might think, since about 1.3 million households were defrauded in 2020, which represents an increase of 161% since 2010! In addition, these are not small sums because 60% of the frauds reported concern amounts ranging from 4,000 to several tens of thousands of euros, which ultimately represents a total of more than 1.2 billion euros. , according to latest report from the Banque de France. The methods used by criminals are increasingly sophisticated: this can range from simple phishing – which consists of extorting someone’s personal and bank details via a fraudulent email or SMS – to identity theft in pretending to be bank advisers, to hacking the phone’s chip. When reporting fraud to their bank and requesting reimbursement, victims usually see their request denied. But it’s not legal.
Online fraud: what does the law say?
You should know that the law requires banks to immediately restore the account of victims, except in cases of gross negligence. Indeed, the monetary and financial code (article L133-18) provides that when the customer reports to his bank “an unauthorized payment transaction“, this one must reimburse him “immediately“. This means that in the event of fraud, a bank must reimburse its customer without the latter having to provide the slightest proof. It is up to the bank to launch investigations in the event of doubt, since the customer pays a service to ensure the security of its transactions, and then to “prove fraud or gross negligence” in order to recover the refund made.
However, the UFC-Que Choisir accuses the twelve banks of overcoming their obligation to demonstrate the personal negligence of their customers in order to refuse to reimburse them. Most of the time, they are content to accuse the victims of “negligence” but without providing any proof. However, the only reason a bank can recover a refund is to “prove fraud or gross negligence” of the customer, according to the monetary and financial code (L.133-23). But it must in any case advance the reimbursement. Banks also refuse to reimburse victims in the event of enhanced authentication, without providing proof that their customer is the source of the payment. They advise instead to turn to the police in order to find the criminal and take back his money. But according to the law, “the use of the payment instrument as recorded by the payment service provider does not necessarily suffice as such to prove that the transaction has been authorized by the payer or that the latter has not satisfied intentionally or through gross negligence to the obligations incumbent on him in this matter“.
It is for these reasons that the consumer association is filing a complaint, because it believes that “cIt is by letting consumers believe in this way that they have no right to reimbursement that the banks are, in our view, guilty of misleading commercial practices. They deceive them on the extent of their rights“. For Alain Bazot, president of UFC-Que Choisir, “Faced with the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated frauds, it cannot be accepted that banks blithely free themselves from their obligation to expressly demonstrate the negligence of their customers in order to refuse to reimburse them“. Whatever the case, while waiting to prove the negligence of the customers, the banks must reimburse them and then carry out the investigation.