In 2020, Romain noticed with amazement while consulting his bank account statement an unknown expense: nearly 1,500 euros of purchases in Greece, when he had never set foot there and the bank card used had not left his wallet. As 1.3 million other French people that year, according to the Homeland Security Statistical Service, he was the victim of fraud, which entitles him, according to the law (articles L133-17 and following of the monetary and financial code), to reimbursement by his bank of the sums stolen. Problem, a growing number of banking networks are reluctant to comply, to the point that the UFC Que Choisir has decided to file a complaint against twelve of them!
Client accused of negligence
The consumer association analyzed ” nearly 4,300 reports from 2019 to 2022 and all of them are problematic “. According to her, we are therefore far from the figures put forward by the French Banking Federation (FBF), which affirms that only one fraud in six is not reimbursed. ” The most common method is to accuse the victims of “negligence”. An alibi that is not admissiblebelieves the UFC Que Choisir. In second place comes the systematic refusal to reimburse in the event of reinforced authentication, without the bank providing proof that its customer is the originator of the payment. At the foot of the podium, other banks try to justify themselves by indicating that their insurance refuses any support “.
Assert your rights !
Faced with too many refusals of reimbursement by banks following bank fraud, we put many tools freely at your disposal. Share them?? https://t.co/9d0VsMIFWS #RefundUs pic.twitter.com/cR4TZ6wORp– UFC-Que Choisir (@UFCquechoisir) June 28, 2022
4,000 euros of fraud
For the association, the banks ” lead consumers to believe that they have no right to reimbursement “. However, the sums involved are far from negligible: 60% of frauds amount to more than 4,000 euro and some can go up to several tens of thousands of euros!
The association’s complaint for misleading commercial practices targets both online banks and traditional networks: La Banque Postale, Crédit Agricole (the worst payers according to it), Banque Populaire, BNP Paribas, Société Générale, CIC , LCL, Boursorama, ING (which has since ceased its activities in France), Nickel, Cetelem and Floa Banque.
” Faced with the proliferation of increasingly sophisticated frauds, it cannot be accepted that banks blithely free themselves from their obligation to expressly demonstrate the negligence of their customers in order to refuse to reimburse them. », storm Alain Bazot, the president of the UFC. At the same time, the latter again seized Bercy and the banking policeman, the ACPR, to request the multiplication of controls.