Around 255,000 euros were stolen by criminals through fake transfers. The bank must compensate the account holder for the damage following a ruling by the OLG Karlsruhe dated April 12, 2022 (Case No. 17 U 823/20).
Fraudsters are inventive when it comes to looting foreign bank accounts. Banking law stipulates that affected account holders are not defenseless and that the bank may be held liable, explains the business law firm MTR Legal Rechtsanwälte, which specializes in banking law. The rights of the bank customers were strengthened by the OLG Karlsruhe with its ruling dated April 12, 2022.
In the present case, the view of her account balance was a shock for the bank customer. Without her knowledge, third parties conducted a total of 13 transfers from her account amounting to around 255,000 euros. Since she had not authorized the transfers, she demanded the money back from the bank.
The bank resisted the demand. It had been common for the plaintiff to give transfer orders to her customer advisor via email. She had partially attached the corresponding invoices. Her customer advisor executed the orders and confirmed the transfers to the plaintiff via email.
It was no different with the disputed 13 transfers. According to the sender, the emails came from the plaintiff and the corresponding invoices were attached. Therefore, the customer advisor executed the transfers. The difference was that the transfer orders did not originate from the customer.
The OLG Karlsruhe decided that the bank must compensate for the damage. Conducting transfer orders via email is a risky method and prone to forgery. As the bank committed to this method without taking further security precautions, it also bears the risk and the burden of proof, the court decided. The bank must prove that the emails came from the customer and not vice versa.
Furthermore, according to an expert report, it is likely that the plaintiff’s email account was hacked. The bank could have noticed that the emails were sent from another time zone and differed in content and tone from the usual emails of the plaintiff, according to the OLG.
Experienced attorneys in banking law provide advice at MTR Legal Rechtsanwälte.
