Sally says:

You first contacted me in July 2021, after Santander rejected your claim for reimbursement. I asked the bank if it would look at your case again. My ­reasoning was that the fraudsters had been so persuasive that it would have been difficult for you to avoid being taken in. I also wondered why more hadn’t been done when sudden large transactions were being made from your account – which you were not accustomed to making.

A week later it came back to confirm it would not be refunding your losses. It said you would have seen a screen showing that the payments you were making were destined not for a Santander account, as the scammer told you, but for a Barclays account (which belonged to the fraudster).

Santander managed to stop a fifth transfer attempt, realising it must be fraud, and had tried to call you. I felt that the manipulative nature of the scammers and the unusual transfers meant you had a strong case to take to the Financial Ombudsman Service, the industry arbiter.

You got in touch with me recently to say that you had done so and that after being approached by the ombudsman Santander had reimbursed you after all.

Although just 37p had been recovered from the scammer’s account, Santander had agreed to make up the remaining £10,269. Santander told me feedback from the ombudsman had led to this change of heart. A spokesman said: “We continue to be committed to doing all we can to prevent our customers falling victim to scams and have a great deal of sympathy for those who are targeted by these criminals.”

I know many readers will feel furious about this outcome, as they frequently object, in letters and online, to me helping victims get their money reimbursed by banks. In response, I would make two points. First, almost anyone can be a victim of a scam if caught at a weak moment.

Second, the banks, police and telecoms companies are failing to solve this problem and must urgently improve their processes. I cover these cases not simply to say “look how much I got back for this scam victim”.

More importantly, it is to provide a warning to all readers to be on their guard against the common frauds that are circulating, so that maybe, one day, neither my services nor the ombudsman’s will be required in these circumstances.