A small business founder who was scammed out of $56,000 has hit out at ANZ Bank for telling him he should have used a security measure that he had no idea was available to him.
Roland Sharman, who founded Sail Shade World 18 years ago and is still the director of the firm, found he had lost more than AU$56,000 in 21 fraudulent credit card transactions in July.
Mr Sharman told Daily Mail Australia that products were shipped to Jordan in the Middle East, only to discover the card details used in the transaction were stolen so the money was retracted and the goods are gone.
He had minimal issues with bad payments as his business expanded to over 50 countries and he moved to Vienna, Austria, to be closer to his family.
Mr Sharman said ANZ raised his transaction fees from 1.8 per cent to 3 per cent for added security once it began taking on so many international orders.
He claims that the bank failed to inform him about a crucial cybersecurity measure, called 3DSecure, which would have protected him from the scammers.
Now ANZ is now refusing to help Mr Sharman, saying he is technically at fault because he left himself exposed to the fraud by not using 3DSecure.
A small business founder who was scammed out of $56,000 has hit out at ANZ Bank for telling him he should have used a security measure that he had no idea was available to him (stock image)
Businessman Roland Sharman (pictured) has taken aim at ANZ after he was scammed of more than AU$56,000 across 21 fraudulent credit card transactions processed by the bank in July
The 80-year-old said he ‘felt sick’ seeing the transactions being cancelled because they were fraudulent.
‘We had already processed 21 transactions and we were thinking: “no, My God, what do we do?”,’ he said.
‘That is such a sinking feeling.’
Mr Sharman said ANZ’s response to the scammers was to put the culpability back onto the businessman.
A representative for the bank told him that it was not their ‘responsibility to look after your security’, Mr Sharman said.
‘I’m sorry, I think it is, I really think it is,’ he added.
The cost of adding 3DSecure to his processing fee is five cents per transaction, which Mr Sharman said he would have happily paid if only he had known about it.
‘This was completely avoidable, I mean they increased our rate and said it was because of the complexity of cybersecurity for overseas business … What the hell for?’ he asked.
Mr Sharman estimated that the increased fees have cost his business hundreds of thousands of dollars over its life, yet when it mattered most there was no protection in place.
Mr Sharman said the bank has shirked all responsibility for the transactions as he hadn’t gotten the proper cybersecurity, making him at fault for the lost money
After bank-and-forth communication with ANZ representatives to resolve the issue went nowhere, Mr Sharman filed an official complaint with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) on August 16.
His said his lawyer believed that banks had ‘pushed the boundary’ in profiting from such online transactions but then refusing to take financial responsibility when their payment systems allow scams to occur.
‘It may well be that with proliferation of cyber crime that we may be very close to the courts enforcing such a duty of care against banks,’ Mr Sharman said.
He has since launched a GoFundMe to help recoup some of the funds he had lost from the scam but also to start a movement to force banks to accept responsibility for cybercrimes on their systems, and for courts to give customers more protection.
‘There should be a push for legislation that would stop this happening,’ Mr Sharman said.
‘As a bank you have a fiduciary responsibility, you shouldn’t allow your customer to be exposed when there is is the way for you to keep them from being exposed.’
Daily Mail Australia contacted ANZ for comment.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk