Bank and building society staff who alerted police about suspicious transactions helped to prevent £55.5m of fraud last year, new figures show.
Staff are trained to spot the warning signs that a customer either in branch or phoning the organisation might be falling victim to a scam, explained UK Finance, the trade body for the banking industry. When asked to perform a potentially fraudulent transaction, staff contact their local police force to intervene and investigate.
The Banking Protocol is a UK-wide scheme developed by UK Finance, National Trading Standards and local police forces. Since the scheme was established in 2016, £258.2m of fraud has been prevented and police have made 1,202 arrests.
BBC News highlighted one case in which a woman in her 80s went into her local Nationwide branch with a young man claiming to be a family friend who said she had agreed to lend him £90,000 for an investment. Concerned about what they had been told, and how the transfer of funds would leave the woman with “next to nothing”, staff called the police and within five minutes two officers had arrived in the branch.
The Banking Protocol is often used to prevent impersonation scams, in which criminals imitate police or bank staff and convince people to visit their bank and withdraw or transfer large sums of money. It is also used to prevent romance fraud, in which fraudsters use fake online dating profiles to trick victims into transferring money, and to catch rogue traders who demand cash for unnecessary work on properties.
Customers who are assisted by the scheme are offered ongoing support to help prevent them from falling victim to scams in the future, including referrals to social services, expert fraud prevention advice and additional checks on future transactions.
