It is a first in Belgium for a bank. Belfius is being prosecuted in criminal court for failing to compensate one of its customers, a victim of phishing, those online or telephone scams in which a fraudster poses as a bank employee and takes money or personal data.
The information was revealed by the daily newspapers L’Echo and De Tijd on Saturday.
What does the law say?
The law obliges banks to immediately reimburse victims of phishing who say they did not consent to a payment. They do so only rarely, claiming precisely that there was consent to the transaction or gross negligence.
As a result, injured victims often have to take the matter to court themselves and launch civil proceedings in an attempt to recover their money.
But in this case, the customer also summoned Belfius before the criminal court: a payment service provider that fails to comply with the rules in the event of fraud commits an offence.
Belfius, which confirms that the proceedings exist but will make no further comment, faces a fine ranging from a few thousand euros to a percentage of annual turnover.
The criminal trial against the bank will open on 30 November before the French-speaking criminal court in Brussels. The case could serve as a precedent for similar complaints.
Banks have already been convicted in Europe
In other European Union countries, banks have indeed been ordered to reimburse without waiting for the outcome of the investigation in phishing cases. The courts considered that handing over one’s personal data to a fraudster did not mean giving consent to a bank transfer and did not amount to negligence on the part of the customer.