Lloyds Banking Group introduces online scam-blocker to fight fraudsters
Lloyds Banking Group has introduced a new online scam-blocker to help customers fight fraudsters attempting to steal their cash.
Designed to prevent people being duped into transferring money to fraudulent accounts, Lloyds Banking Group will roll out this new interactive protection, which will see customers of Lloyds Bank, Halifax and Bank of Scotland being prompted to answer additional security questions before setting up new online payments.
The information could also be fed in to the Group’s state-of- the-art detection systems to help predict where fraud might occur in the future.
Lloyds Banking Group blocked 250,000 attempts to impersonate customers in the past two years, but now criminals are turning to Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud – convincing victims that they are dealing with ‘genuine’ bodies such as the bank, police or service providers.
With more than 130,000 customers expected to benefit from the scam blockers before the end of November, they will help ensure people are taking the appropriate time to stop and think about what they are about to do and where their money is going before they make an new online payment.
Paul Davis, Retail Fraud Director, Lloyds Banking Group, said: “Fraudsters will often try to guide people through the money transfer process over phone, but our new scam-blockers will encourage potential victims to snap out of auto-pilot and stop fraudsters in their tracks before a payment instruction has even been set up.
“Helping our customers to keep their money safe is our top priority and this new addition to our fraud-fighting armoury is part of our multi-million pound investment in advancing our defences over the next three years.
“The additional questions will help people challenge whether the situation is genuine – like a friend asking ‘if you’re sure you want to do this.’ This could be a critical moment where they could otherwise be tricked into pushing the button.
“Fighting financial fraud is a concerted effort between the banks, our customers and the police – the more we all know about how to identify attempts before they happen the more we are able to prevent fraud occurring.”
“Helping our customers to keep their money safe is our top priority and this new addition to our fraud-fighting armoury is part of our multi-million pound investment in advancing our defences over the next three years.
“The additional questions will help people challenge whether the situation is genuine – like a friend asking ‘if you’re sure you want to do this.’ This could be a critical moment where they could otherwise be tricked into pushing the button.
“Fighting financial fraud is a concerted effort between the banks, our customers and the police – the more we all know about how to identify attempts before they happen the more we are able to prevent fraud occurring.”