Romance scam refund and prepayment meter penalty

Money Box

BBC

Business

4.2 • 825 Ratings

🗓️ 15 April 2023

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A Money Box investigation has resulted in a £150,000 refund for a vulnerable romance fraud victim, after their bank initially refused to reimburse. The victim's family were told that a voluntary code, known as the Contingent Reimbursement Model or CRM, designed to protect victims of fraud would not apply in their case, because the payments had been made to an international bank account. We look at what, if anything, banks can do to prevent payments to criminal accounts overseas.

In the Spring Budget the Chancellor promised to end the so-called prepayment meter penalty, where customers currently pay an extra £45 compared to direct debit customers. We look at how the new policy will work, and if it's feasible to level the playing field between pre-payment meter customers and direct debit customers long term. And where does this leave customers who pay by cash or cheque?

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities has announced another extension to the Help to Buy Equity loan scheme. For many buyers this extension came at the last possible moment, the previous deadline was the 31st March and some stood to lose their sales. Other buyers had already received their deposits back and won't benefit from the two-month extension. We hear from a buyer and a conveyancing solicitor.

Presenter: Dan Whitworth Reporter: Aruna Iyengar and Dan Whitworth Researchers: Sandra Hardial and Jo Krasner Editor: Beatrice Pickup

Transcript

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0:00.0	On a winter's night in 1974, a crime took place that would obsess the nation.
0:07.0	It was an extraordinary news story.
0:09.0	The story of an aristocrat, Lord Lucan, who's said to have killed the family Nanny,
0:14.0	mistaking her for his wife, then somehow just disappeared.
0:18.0	One of the great mysteries in English criminal history. We're still looking for
0:21.7	Lucan. It's honestly one of the most powerful stories of my lifetime. I'm Alex Fontunzelman. This is
0:27.8	the Lucan Obsession. Listen on BBC Sounds. BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts. Hello, welcome to this Moneybox podcast. I'm Dan Whitworth.
0:40.3	I want to tell you about one of the program's biggest ever wins, a £150,000
0:46.3	refund for a vulnerable victim of romance fraud after his bank initially refused to reimburse.
0:51.3	It's a case like I've never seen before after years of reporting
0:55.3	on fraud. Keep listening to hear why. We've also got news of a last-minute extension to help to buy
1:00.7	in England and answers for you on how the Chancellor's promise to stop energy prepayment meter
1:05.7	customers paying more will work. But first, Moneybox has helped a listener recover more than 150,000 pounds from
1:13.7	their bank, which had initially refused to refund the money because of a loophole in a code
1:18.4	designed to protect victims of fraud. It leaves victims of push payment fraud, who have been
1:24.0	tricked into transferring money to criminals, exposed for the simple reason that the person stealing their money does so
1:30.7	using an overseas account.
1:32.9	I'd not come across this situation before
1:34.7	until I had an email from one of our listeners, Adam,
1:37.5	telling us his father James had been the victim of an elaborate cruel romance fraud.
1:42.7	Well, with me to help tell the story is Moneybox reporter Aruna
1:45.6	Ayynga. Yes, Dan, this is quite a story. Over 13 months, whilst James was caring for his
	...

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