100 signatures reached
To: Mark Carney, Governor, The Bank of England :: Andrew Bailey, CEO, Financial Conduct Authority :: Theresa May, Home Secretary.
Preventing Online Bank Fraud :: Security -v- Convenience
I am asking these three people to change the online 'faster payments' system to prevent fraudsters from stealing all the money in a person's bank accounts.
This can be done very easily by implementing a 24-Hour Delay (24HD) between the creation of a NEW PAYEE and the payment of any amount over £250 to that Payee. 24HD will not apply when making payments to existing payee's - these will continue to happen almost instantly as they do now.
Why is this important?
Online banking fraud is one of the fastest growth areas for fraudsters. If a fraudster gains online access to your account they can steal your money by creating new payees and sending your money to those new payees. And it’s not limited to your current account because they can transfer money from other linked accounts as well.
But if a fraudster wants to steal your money he has to do two things:
- create a new payee
- make payments to that payee.
The current system allows payments to be made immediately after the new payee is created, so even if your bank sends you a text message or email to tell you that a new payee has been created (by a fraudster!) it may already be too late to stop them stealing your money.
It's a trade-off between security and convenience. The banks tell me that their customers want ALL faster payments to go instantly, but when was the last time you needed to make a higher value payment (over £250) to a new payee and didn’t know their bank details at least 24-hours in advance?
I investigate online bank fraud and card fraud so you can read two important case studies at www.24HourDelay.co.uk. 'Jack' lost £59,000 and 'Henry' lost £18,000. Both of these thefts would have been prevented if the banks had 24HD.
Anyone can be a victim, especially the older and more vulnerable members of society. You could be next, and the banks do not always give the money back.
If you have any questions or comments please post them on 24HourDelay.co.uk and I will do my best to respond.
I believe that a very small reduction in convenience is a price worth paying in return for a major increase in account security.
Thank you for your support this campaign. Together we can stop people having their life savings stolen!
Richard Emery
