A warning has been issued by Santander to all its account holders after one woman nearly lost £80,000.
The bank discovered more than 70% of purchase scams originate on social media where people are tricked into transferring cash to criminals. Santander said all payment service providers should follow a specific set of rules to help prevent fraud in a call to other banks.
In one case, a 61-year-old woman was persuaded to make several payments to someone she thought she had made friends with while playing an online game. She transferred more than £80,000 in total and was told to lie about the reasons for the payments, the Liverpool Echo reports.
