To not understand why banks can't do more to trace and prevent fraud

[WatchoRulo]

Saw a programme about scams on BBC iplayer. One woman had £120K stolen because her solicitor's email was hacked and she received an email instructing her to transfer money to different account.
I notice in cases like this banks often say there is nothing they can do - but surely there's an audit trail of where the funds have gone? If there's a simple way to have a totally anonymous bank account that UK banks are happy to move funds to doesn't that make a mockery of anti money laundering?
Is it just that UK banks can't be arsed?

I think it's because as soon as it hits that account it then gets transferred to other accounts over and over some even abroad so it's a huge web so super hard to trace

How are these criminals opening untraceable bank accounts is what I want to know.

You have to prove your identity to open an account, yet if that account is used for fraud, suddenly they have no idea who's name it's in or where they live?

That solicitor one has been around for a few years now - when we bought this house (2017) we made a point of checking with our solicitors directly (we actually went into the office the day of transfer to double-check it was the correct bank account). Solicitors should be doing more to prevent this, in my opinion.

Banks already do a lot to prevent fraud but some people won't be told - I've seen quite a lot of those scam programmes and in one of them, whilst a woman had scammers claiming to be her bank getting her to do the 'move your money into a safe account' thing, her husband came in and said he weas going to ring the bank to check. Whereupon the scammer said "No, don't ring the bank!" - so they didn't!

I reckon the banks should be clubbing together to buy ad time during popular programmes (e.g. Coronation St - it's predominantly the older generation who are getting scammed) and placing ads telling people such things as "We will never tell you to move money into a 'safe account' - if in doubt, use a different phone to call your bank and check."

Totally agree. They can't be arsed.

Yes, I've said this! I've known immigrants have a hell of a time trying to open a bank account into which they can get paid but be turned away by banks because they don't have utility bills with their names on and other proof of address.

I agree education is needed to prevent people falling for the scams - but why can't the banks trace the money? Does it mean they can't trace any criminal funds, or just can't be arsed to help ordinary people because it's too much work?

As pp indicated, the funds don't stay in the first account they are transferred to. They then go off to an offshore bank outside of UK jurisdiction.

So it's that simple to steal from people - all I need is an offshore bank account and no-one will come after me or the cash?
No wonder it's so prevalent.

They also intercept and take control of innocents bank accounts and use that to receive fraudulent funds. So it’s not just a case of anonymous accounts etc.

If paying any large sum of money, I always pay £1 and then phone them on a number I know to get the recipient to check it's arrived, THEN transfer the rest.

Agree, it's too easy. Even if all the money has been transferred out of the first account, the banks should investigate the person who received the funds in the first place. In many cases they don't even bother to do that.

It does seem as if sometimes it's easier for the banks to let fraud go, rather than spending money on investigations and court cases. Just shows how much profit they're making. This is added to by the fact that the police prefer not to get involved, because they don't have the budget to investigate this type of fraud.

My brother had over £10k stolen out of his Santander account, they were useless

They said that somebody rang up and answered all the security questions. They refunded him the money but they weren't bothered in investigating it

He's still with them. I would have left them

Worked in banks for a long time and so many times we question transfers to solicitors account or international payments or new payments being set up and honestly the grief you get from customers.
We used to ask them to call their solicitor using our phone and confirm the bank details.
I remember one customer who was being blackmailed out of his life saving and I refused to transfer the money until he could prove who this person was and why, the police were called it was a whole thing. He had transferred already 50k and had planned on transferring another 250k.
Honestly bank staff do question and ask for proof but u always get its my money I'll send to whoever I like.

All sensible people do that but scammers are preying on those who are elderly, confused, trusting, too naive etc

It's no skin off their noses if some people don't fall for it they'll move on until they find someone who does

If you had a change of account details email from your solicitor I don't quite understand why you'd bother with the £1 though, why wouldn't you just ring and ask them if it was genuine

With confirmation of payee that shouldn't be necessary now anyway.