Rise in fraud and scam complaints, report says

The Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman said it received 562 complaints in 2023

Banking fraud and scam complaints in the Channel Islands have more than quadrupled in a year, a report has said.

The Channel Islands Financial Ombudsman (CIFO), which handles complaints about financial services, published its 2023 annual report detailing the complaints it dealt with in Jersey and Guernsey.

The report said overall there were 562 complaints about financial services in 2023, up from 500 in 2022.

Of those, 22 complaints were specifically about fraud and scams, compared with five in 2022.

Cases investigated by CIFO in 2023 included a "romance scammer" taking £120,000 from a man and a fraudster who pretended to be a cryptocurrency investor taking £17,750 from someone.

The watchdog said the level of fraud and scam complaints were "high" across the islands, with an "increasing level of sophistication" about the scams reported.

Account closures

Along with scams, CIFO said it also noticed a rise in banking complaints where accounts were reportedly blocked "due to suspected fraudulent activity".

It added there were cases where banks did not give customers a reason for why their accounts had been shut down.

"Bank account closures were also prevalent and arose where customers were not locally resident or where a change in the bank's risk appetite had occurred," the report said.

"In some cases, banks were simply not providing a reason to their customers for closing their accounts."

Resolved complaints

CIFO's annual report said it was able to close 343 cases in 2023, an increase on the 309 cases closed in 2022.

It said 67% of cases it dealt with were resolved without needing a final decision from the ombudsman.

The report said 48% of complaints CIFO received in 2023 were closed within the month they were received.