Case 3- Credit Card Fraud and ‘on the town’ event merits compensation of €2,500
A night out, or perhaps more precisely, a morning out “on the town” in Brussels, had
unfortunate consequences for a Credit Card holder. It appears he visited various night
spots. At one place, officially described by the Credit Card Company as a “drinking
place/alcoholic beverages merchant”, it appears from his Credit Card account that the
Complainant made four purchases totalling €7,750. One item was for €250 and was
not disputed. The other transactions were for €2,500 each and were recorded on the
system as having taken place at 4:40 a.m., 5:11 a.m. and 5:32 a.m. The Cardholder
complained to the bank which refunded €2,000 of the total amount because the credit
limit on the account had been exceeded by that amount. The Complainant complained
to the Ombudsman that the bank should pay the full amount. The bank refused.
Having investigated the case, the Ombudsman found that clearly the Complainant had
been a victim of a “rip off” at this venue which he had attended. However the
Ombudsman could not see how the bank should be held responsible for the entire cost
of this “rip off”.
Nevertheless the Ombudsman decided that the bank’s security system ought to have
done better when three transactions for €2,500 took place within one hour in the early
hours of the morning in the city of Brussels and was not in line with the cardholder’s
usual pattern of spend. As it turns out, not even a “ripple of unease” appears to have
passed through the bank’s fraud prevention system. This, the Ombudsman considered,
was a failure on the part of the bank.
In assessing compensation the Ombudsman took account of the fact that the bank had
already refunded €2,000 to the Credit Card account and also took account of the fact
that the Complainant must have been somewhat careless in securing his Card. The
Ombudsman directed the bank to pay a further €2,500 in compensation.