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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Business
Miles Brignall

‘Kafkaesque’: bank blocks cash transfer, saying it could be an AI scam

Mobile phone with website of British challenger bank Starling Bank on screen in front of logo.
Starling Bank said that while it had a duty to protect customers from fraud, it had gone too far in this case. Photograph: Timon Schneider/Alamy

An Edinburgh academic has accused Starling bank’s fraud team of behaving like officers in a police state after they repeatedly refused to allow him to send a €15,000 (£12,800) payment to a friend in Austria, then froze his account when he complained about their “absurd demands”.

John MacInnes, a professor emeritus of sociology and statistics, says he has been left astonished by his treatment by staff at the challenger bank.

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