Savers who use social media to complain to their banks about technical glitches are having their details snatched by crooks. Criminals are lurking online waiting for banks to suffer technical problems so they can dupe unwitting customers into handing over information. The crooks set up fake Twitter accounts that mimic genuine ones belonging to the bank. Customers are told to click a link, which sends them to a website that looks similar to the bank’s. But when they enter their bank details to log in, the information is snatched by fraudsters. Last month NatWest suffered the latest in a series of attacks by fraudsters using Twitter after it suffered technical problems.

The fake Twitter account was shut down — though a number of customers had responded to it. The bank would not confirm whether any customers had cash stolen. It will decide on issuing refunds on a case-by-case basis. The Twitter scam is the latest ruse used by crooks to con bank customers. Other tricks include phishing, where a fraudster contacts a customer over the phone. The criminal pretends to be a police officer or a representative of the bank and dupes the account holder into handing over details. But in many cases victims do not receive a refund because banks deem they enabled the fraud by handing over information. Consumer group Which? has called for the payments regulator to force banks to do more to help fraud victims recover losses.....Read more here