Santander Bank upgrades security for customers with new payment process

Through various prompts and questions, Santanders online banking will now ask customers questions to verify they are confident of the payment they are about to make and remind them they may not be paying a legitimate source.

Santander customers will now be warned numerous times over scams. Scammers will pressure victims over the phone or via legitimate-looking emails to make a payment urgently. Fraudsters prefer this trick because people typically make payments using real-time systems to transfer money.

Banks are not keen to return money after customers have been grossly negligent and chosen to transfer money to a designated individual or company. But now that Santander have revised its payment process with additional prompts, questions and warnings it may be even more difficult to qualify for a refund as the bank could argue that there were enough alerts highlighting that you, the customer, could be paying a fraudster.

Transferring money in such a way is not reversible so the consumer cant get their money back themselves when they realise they have been duped. As a defence against this type of scam, Santanders new process asks customers to pick a category of payment when making a transfer. Depending on the selection the customer makes, specific scam avoidance guidance will be provided.

This step will be a compulsory part of the payment process and introduced online followed by a roll out to branches and contact centres. Customers are reminded that scammers will often pressurise them into making an immediate payment and will be given the option to set a cooling-off period. Customers must confirm they are not being asked to move their money by anyone, that they have freely chosen the reason for the payment, and have read the associated scam warning before they continue.

Santander says this is designed to help in instances where customers are asked to move money to a safe account as it will immediately flag the receiving bank and alert customers if it is not going where they expect it to go.