‘The bank is responsible for unapproved transactions’ warning from the Consumers Union

Mahmut Şahin, Chairman of the Consumers Union, stated that the bank is responsible for all damages that may occur due to transactions that are not approved by the customer.

Retired officer Tuncay Tarhan in Kayseri ended the conversation realizing that the person calling him on the phone was a fraud.

Realizing that money was withdrawn from his account despite his non-approval, Tarhan informed the bank’s customer service and demanded that the necessary action be taken.

About 5 hours after meeting with bank officials, Tarhan learned that his 30 thousand lira, which the scammers transferred to another account, was withdrawn and a legal fight began.

Despite the fact that Tarhan did not give any approval in the expert report and it was stated that the money was withdrawn, the consumer court decided to cover the damages in half.

Following this decision, Tarhan took the case to the Regional Court of Justice.

‘THE BANK SHOULD ASSIGN SECURITY’

Consumers Union President Şahin explained that Tarhan was defrauded of 30,000 lira even though he did not give any approval, saying that the bank is the party to assign trust in such events.

Emphasizing that banks must take all precautions against fraud, Şahin said: “The client or consumer has no obligation to establish trust. The consumer who needs protection is the owner of the system that needs protection. Article 76 of the Banking Law states that ‘all kinds of consumer problems, all customer problems and questions are solution authority and the bank has to answer them’. The responsibility was given to the bank in the first place,” he said.

Explaining that a citizen suffered a loss of 30,000 lira despite not taking any action, Şahin said:

“Money is withdrawn from a consumer’s account at a public bank, which we call an additional account, increasing the limit without their knowledge. In addition, you are not sent a password or confirmation code, but rather you are removed. Then the bank is warned, it says ‘cancel this’. The bank has the power to cancel. In interbank transactions, there is the possibility to intervene immediately in such inappropriate transactions. They can block both sides. The bank is already responsible for not putting it”.

‘THE BANK SHOULD COMPARE 100 PERCENT OF THE LOSS’

Defending that the bank is fully responsible for this loss, Şahin continued:

“The Consumer Court says that ‘the consumer is half-hearted for not fulfilling his obligation to store and protect password information that belongs to him and cannot be known by anyone else.’ In other words, he says, ‘the bank also has a responsibility’. ‘Both the bank is responsible,’ he says, ‘and the consumer is responsible.’ Now the expert report says ‘the consumer does not have a weakness here, there is a weakness in the system’. Under the law and according to Supreme Court jurisprudence, they share half of the justice, while the bank must pay 100 percent. If it’s the bank’s fault, if it’s the bank that needs to be protected, and if the bank is warned a minute after the incident and says, ‘Oh look, I’m not doing this, I’m not aware of this. ‘, but the bank has not found a solution and has not canceled it, the responsibility lies with the bank. The bank has to cover the loss 100 percent.”

DESPITE THE BANK, HAS BEEN VICTIFIED

Client Tuncay Tarhan also said that when they called him on the phone, he told the other party that they were a fraud and ended the conversation.

Underlining that he was a victim despite informing the bank, Tarhan said:

“We got a call from someone we don’t know and they said 3,100 credits were withdrawn from my account. When I said they were scammers the phone hung up. Meanwhile, we saw 3 messages on the screen, ‘10,000 TL has been withdrawn from your account’, ‘Your account has been increased to 20,000 TL’ and ‘20,000 TL has been withdrawn’. This process was done in just 3 minutes.

I called customer service. Explaining the situation, I asked them to cancel the transaction and that happened outside of me. The customer service also told me to go to the bank branch the next day and file the application at the appropriate place and go to the prosecutor’s office. I said, ‘First of all, stop the process so we don’t get hurt.’ We block the cards and the account. When I asked customer support, they stated that the transaction would not go through. Later I found out that the money was taken from my account.”

Tarhan explained that although the suspect was caught and sentenced and admitted to the crime, he was a victim.

Arguing that the bank is 100 percent responsible and should cover all damages, Tarhan said he is continuing the legal fight. (AA)