Innocent victims of card fraud are being left out of pocket by banks who flout the rules. n each case the banks seem to be breaking strict rules that demand they give back a customer’s money unless they can prove they were at fault. Often customers have had their bank card stolen or cloned by a crook, and the four-digit security pin correctly guessed or secretly filmed. The fraudster then buys goods or withdraws cash at a cash machine, leaving the innocent cardholder to pick up the tab. In most cases, the bank fobs off the customer or fails to properly investigate — and the customer is left empty-handed.

Peter Nixon, from Middlesbrough, is one of many angry bank customers whose card was cloned. Days before his recent work trip overseas to the Middle East, a new Barclays credit card arrived in the post. Though he didn’t have time to activate it, a fraudulent £200 withdrawal was made just 48 hours later. ‘Barclays said I must have withdrawn the money, so I sent them a photocopy of the passport stamp, the plane ticket and my boarding card,’ he says. ‘But they still said I must have taken the cash — even though I had proved I was 3,000 miles away.’ Last week Money Mail revealed how bank customers are being treated like criminals when they complain about fraudulent transactions on their accounts. Since then we have heard from victims who have had to do their own police work to prove their innocence or were 3,000 miles away when the payments were made.....Read more here: Banks paint card fraud victims as criminals