One in five ‘have authorised payments flagged by their bank as suspect’

More than one in five (21%) people say they have authorised payments even though their bank or building society has flagged them as suspect.

Men are more likely to have done this (29%) than women (14%), according to a survey carried out for Nationwide Building Society.

More than a third (36%) of 16 to 24-year-olds and 37% of 25 to 34-year-olds have authorised a payment that has been flagged as suspicious, compared with 9% of over-55s.

But authorising such payments has left more than a third (34%) out of pocket.

A name-checking service called confirmation of payee is used by banks and building societies to help reduce fraud and misdirected payments.

It helps to tackle bank transfer scams where fraudsters will try to persuade people that they are paying a legitimate organisation.

Nationwide also launched a scam checker service in September last year.

The service enables the Society’s members to check an electronic payment they are worried about either in a branch or by calling a freephone number.

If the payment goes ahead and the member is subsequently scammed, unless Nationwide told the member not to proceed, they will be fully reimbursed.

The survey of more than 3,000 people across the UK in May also looked at issues with rogue traders.

It found that more than two-fifths (44%) of people have or know someone who has had work done on their property to such a poor standard that it required fixing or redoing. While nearly a third (32%) of those got someone else to remedy the work, 12% did it themselves.

Despite poor quality work, more than a third (37%) said the money paid was not returned.

Nationwide also warned about email hack scams when making payments, after finding more than a third (35%) of people said they were not previously aware that criminals can intercept genuine email and text exchanges.

Ed Fisher, head of fraud policy at Nationwide Building Society, said: “When it comes to paying for the work it’s always important to make sure that any emails you receive are genuine.

“Email scams can happen at any time, whether the work has been done properly or not.

“It’s important to be careful when receiving requests for payment over text or email as fraudsters have the capability to intercept these and make subtle changes to account details which will divert the payment to them.

“Ring the tradesperson on a number you know is theirs and double check the account details. If anything in the email header looks odd, don’t send the money.”