Why Britain's Scam Rules Put the Bank in the Detection Seat
Two people described the same financial scam to police and banks; the only difference was where they lived—one in Canada, the other in the U.K.
Andrei Skorobogatov, a strategic advisor of Britain's regulations, says shifting the burden of responsibility from customer to bank is a recognition that financial institutions are better able to identify and stop scams.
He argues that the public going about day-to-day business will probably struggle to detect a scam, while a bank with highly sophisticated detection mechanisms is in a much better place to do so.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The case for shifting responsibility is an information-asymmetry argument: the bank is better able to identify and stop scams than the customer.
But that advantage has a shadow: scammers borrow the bank's authority. One caller posed as Tangerine's fraud department and told the customer his card had to be collected as evidence.