The new Authorised Push Payment Scam Code

The APP Scam Code does not apply to payments authorised before the new Code comes into force on 28 May 2019.  We will continue to review all scams on a case-by-case basis.

The APP Scam  Code applies to:

All personal customers.

Charities with an annual income of less than £1 million.

Micro-enterprises – an enterprise which employs fewer than 10 people and whose annual turnover and annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million.

The APP Scam Code does not cover:

Any payments completed before the APP Scam Code  comes into force on 28 May 2019.

Any disputes relating to unauthorised payments (such as where the customer has not consented to the payment) or other payments which are not related to an APP Scam. This is a fraud and will be covered by other regulation.

Commercial disputes, for example, where a customer has paid a legitimate supplier for goods, services or digital content but has not received them, or they are in some way defective.

Payments made overseas. The APP Scam Code applies to UK customers and UK Sterling payments only.

Where our Corporate and Commercial customers are the victims of APP scams, we consider all cases carefully and help our customers, actively promoting awareness of scams and how to prevent them, such as our ongoing fraud roadshows, factsheets and our recent ‘Think Twice’ video. We have an active fraud education and awareness programme with consultants who work directly with customers around the country.

We are supporting customers by providing advice about key types of scams and the latest scams through our website and social channels. We educate our customers through the promotion of the industry Take 5 initiative to raise awareness of scams and how to deal with them. In higher risk circumstances, we may perform additional checks on payments that customers request, often getting in touch to check details and give advice on signs of a scam. 

There are now warnings and advice when customers pay money to a new payee using our mobile banking apps, online banking and in our Branch & call centres.  Since they were introduced into our digital channels, over 3 million customers have acknowledged these messages when making a payment to a new payee.

The Code covers all APP scam types and we will work within the Code guidelines to review all scams on a case by case basis.  Examples of common APP scams include:

• Impersonation scams - fraudsters convince customers they are speaking to bank staff, before convincing them to transfer money to a ‘safe account’ for their protection or customers are tricked into believing they are dealing with other official agencies, e.g. TV Licensing or HMRC, and send money to fraudsters instead.
• Invoice scams - this happens when an individual, company or organisation is tricked into changing bank account details of a payee for a large payment. Criminals pose as regular suppliers to the individual, company or organisation and will make a formal request for bank account details to be changed.
• Investment scams – target victims to hand over money for what appear to be legitimate investments with high rates of return. Since the pensions freedoms was introduced in April 2015, older people are particularly vulnerable to investment scams because they can access cash lump sums from pension pots.