Copyright jerseyeveningpost
A HEARTBROKEN father has urged banks to strengthen safeguards after his son died shortly after discovering he had been defrauded of more than £50,000 in a romance scam. The bereaved parent, who wished to remain anonymous, argued that banks across the board need to do far more to protect customers from increasingly sophisticated scams. His son, who banked with Barclays, fell into a coma at home in June following a bleed on the brain and never regained consciousness. His father believes the shock and extreme stress of realising he had been scammed may have contributed to his death. “I think what happened is he twigged what he’d done… once he realised that this was a con,” he said. He said the scam began online and involved payments made via PayPal that were later transferred overseas. The JEP was shown multiple pages of bank statements, highlighting how the transfers started with small amounts and gradually increased. “It got more and more and more,” the man’s tearful father explained. Around £53,000 left the man’s accounts over three months. His father said he felt the payments were clearly out of character and the bank should have noticed something was wrong. “There should be a safeguard in every bank where, if a payment crosses a line with a certain behaviour, they’re on it straight away. There was none of that,” he said. He said that none of the money had been recovered and that he felt completely let down. “I got a letter from the bank saying, ‘We can’t do anything about it’,” he said. “They led me to believe that they thought they could recover some of it.” The father said that Jersey police had “really tried” to help, and traced the funds leaving Jersey. However, he was later told there was nothing more they could do once the money had moved offshore. Had the bank been able to go further to help, he wondered if his son “might still be here”. The father said he wanted to speak out to raise awareness of how easily scams could escalate and to help others recognise warning signs sooner. “I don’t want some other guy or some lady to be treated the same way as my son was treated,” he said. Barclays did not comment on the individual case but said that protecting customers’ funds and data “is our highest priority”, adding: “We have every sympathy for any customer who falls victim to fraud”. “If a customer thinks they have been a victim of fraud or notices a transaction on their account that they do not recognise, we advise them to contact their bank immediately and report the case to the police through Action Fraud,”the bank added. Figures from the States police show Islanders have lost more than £1.1 million to romance scams since 2022. There were three cases in both 2022 and 2023, rising to six in 2024 and four by July this year, with total losses of £1,126,219. The Joint Financial Crimes Unit said romance scams remained one of the most damaging forms of fraud – both financially and emotionally – and warned that anyone could be targeted. Detective Constable Lidia Szejko, who investigates romance and online scams, previously told the JEP that Islanders of all ages should be on their guard for fraud. “People imagine it’s older women who fall for it, but it doesn’t work like that. It can happen to a young man, an older man, or a young girl. It has nothing to do with intelligence or with education. We all have feelings, and we can all be vulnerable.” She said fraudsters used manipulation tactics to groom their victims and convince them to make big payments by pretending they need money for an emergency. Douglas Melville, chief executive of the Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman, previously explained that complaints about banks’ handling of fraud cases were becoming increasingly common. He noted that institutions face a difficult balance between protecting customers and respecting their independence. However, he suggested that advances in AI could help banks spot and prevent scams earlier in future.
