ccording to Lancs Live, a mum says she has been left on the breadline after fraudsters hacked her bank account and stole hundreds of pounds to buy PlayStation games as she slept. She says she only realised what had happened when her husband heard the notifications pinging through to her phone of the purchases, all of which were to ‘PlayStation Network London’. She alerted her bank and PlayStation as well as reporting the matter to police and Action Fraud. However, she claims her bank, which is the community banking division of Contis, told her that her fraud claim was not going to be upheld.

It is often difficult to pinpoint when a card has been cloned or details have been stolen in a data hack due to the multiple ways in can occur. However, it is always best to keep a close eye on financial outgoings and question anything unrecognised with the bank. It is important to understand that the banks will potentially attempt to not refund customers as these scams are costing them millions of pounds each year. However, customers can protect their accounts by never giving out sensitive details including PIN codes to anyone and being extremely wary of unsolicited communication including emails, calls and text messages claiming to be from their bank.