Email payment fraud

[Guest]

The email chain from the company putting in my new kitchen flooring got intercepted and I ended up paying the cost of the work into a fraudulent account. My bank has contacted the bank that holds the fraudulent account, but cannot guarantee there will be any money to return. Who is responsible? I thought I paid the right person and so cannot see why I should be responsible in this case.

[james_law]

Hi,

Sorry for the situation you sadly find yourself in through no fault of either party.

Unfortunately you are ultimately responsible in making sure the money is sent to the right account. While I appreciate this is a a terrible situation that has occurred neither yourself or the other company are at fault.

I would not expect the banks to intervene much as there has been analogous cases which have seen the banks basically wipe their hands as they offer no protection in account to account transfer.

The bad news is that you will need to pay the money owed to the company and hope the bank can retrieve at least part of the money if not all. I would speak to the company, explain the situation and hopefully they will be more lenient in arranging a mutually beneficial agreement of paying the money to them.

A few pre-cautions for next time to safeguard you from this issue would be to send a small test and contact the company/person to see if it has arrived before sending the rest of the money. There is also a app/site called PAYM which allows you to check the name of the account holder before hand which could prove very handy.

Hope this helps.