Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams - Beverley Building Society : Beverley Building Society

The use of payments scams, particularly APP fraud scams, are becoming more prevalent

APP scams happen where a person uses a fraudulent or dishonest act or course of conduct to manipulate, deceive or persuade a member into transferring funds from their account to another account not controlled by the member; for example:

where the recipient is not who the member intended to pay, or
the payment is not for the purpose the member intended but which turned out to be fraudulent.

Under the new rules imposed by the Payment Systems Regulator, the following applies:

Eligibility	The reimbursement requirement applies to individuals, microenterprises (as defined by the Payment Systems Regulator) and charities, where an APP scam payment is made using Faster Payments and CHAPS in the UK and sent to a relevant account in the UK that can send or receive payments via the Faster Payments Scheme (‘FPS’) or CHAPS.
Time Limits	Any account holder must have raised a claim within 13 months of the payment to the fraudster.
Claim Excess	In some cases, the Society may levy a maximum of £100 which would be deducted from the final claim amount.
Maximum Claim	Is the lower of the fraudulent payment or £85,000.

Once received, each claim will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, dependent on the circumstances, level of evidence provided, whether there are other parties involved and the Society’s own investigations.

Exclusions

The new APP Scheme Rules exclude the following scenarios:

First party fraud (For the avoidance of doubt, if the member is party to the fraud or dishonesty, this is not eligible for the purpose of the reimbursement rules).
Gross negligence
Time exclusions (i.e. the ’13-month rule’)
International payments
Payments which take place across other payment systems (e.g. BACS etc.)
Scam payments made using cheques and cash
Payments made to an account the consumer controls, or payments that are not authorised by the consumer (‘unauthorised payments’)
Civil disputes
Where payments are sent or received by credit unions, municipal banks and national savings banks.

What our members can expect during the process?

To support the Society in combatting APP fraud and applying an expected standard of caution, there is a requirement on members to:

Report the suspected scam to competent national authorities such as the police. This includes allowing the Society to report the case on your behalf.
Promptly report the suspected scam to the Society as soon as you fall victim or suspect you have fallen victim to a scam.
Cooperate fully with authorities and the Society by responding promptly, fully and accurately to any information requests in support of the claim assessment.

Outcome

If, after the claim has been investigated and you are still not satisfied with the final outcome, members can use our existing complaints process, including escalating to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

See our Complaints page here.