Anti-Fraud Guide: I've been scammed. What can I do?

bunq

Hey bunqers 🌈

Discovering you’re a victim of fraud is an unpleasant experience. It’s perfectly natural to be angry, but please know that bunq has got your back, that we offer you the tools to secure your account and also help others to avoid becoming a victim. We prepared this topic to help you understand what you need to do if you discover that you’re a victim of fraud.

I was scammed, what can I do now?

First, reset your Security Code
- If you suspect someone else has access to your bunq account, immediately reset your Security Code to ensure your account’s security. Read how to reset your Security Code here.
Submit a Fraud Report to bunq
- Always report the incident to bunq, so we can take action. Fill out the appropriate form on this page.
Report the the scam to the police
- Also, report the scam to the police to make them aware too. In the Netherlands for example you can report these types of incidents online here. Once a police report has been made forward it both to your bank and the scammer's bank in order to further assist in the case.
If you have an account at another bank and you’ve been scammed by a bunq user, report it to your bank’s customer support
- Give all available details of the scam and the fraudulent transaction. The details that you should share are all key information of the fraudulent payment (sender's name, sender's IBAN, recipient's name, recipient's IBAN, amount, date, etc). If the payment was made via a credit/debit card, please include the first 6 and last 4 digits of the card used. Also include any relevant screenshots or export of the payment confirmation as shown on your bank statements.

I lost money to a fraudster. Will I get a refund?

If you lost money to a fraudster, rest assured that we’ll do all we can to resolve the situation for you and get your money back. Fraud cases can be complex and we’re dependent on other banks, so this process can take up quite some time. To not keep you waiting while we are working on securing your money, we will assess if we can be lenient. To do this effectively, we count on your full cooperation.

To work on your case and determine if we can offer you compensation, we will gather information about your case. That’s why the first step for you is to submit a fraud report on our website and report the fraud to the police.

After we receive your fraud report, our dedicated team will pick up your case and reach out to you within 3 days through the secure chat in the bunq app to inform you about next steps.

Why it’s important to report fraud cases

Reporting a scam is important, not just for your own case but allowing banks and the police to better identify scams in the future to help others.

The police
- The police can start a criminal investigation thanks to the report. The criminal investigation can lead to a trial for the scammer, and a judge can then order the scammer to pay back the victims.
Your bank
- Your bank will be able to contact the bank of the scammer via a special channel, to check if it's possible to get the money back.

What to do if you don’t trust a bunq.me link?

If you receive a bunq.me payment link and you suspect it's fraud, please use the report button to report the page to our compliance team. The team will immediately take action against the account.

How can I secure my account again?

To make your bunq account fully secured again, please follow these steps:

Go to your account’s Settings, select Security and tap on Reset your Security Code. Resetting your Security Code will end all currently active sessions. If a new device logs in, they’ll have to go through an identity verification.
Go to Profile and tap on your name. From there, delete any phone number or email address that you do not recognise. This will ensure that only you have access to your bunq account.

Further information on how we keep you safe can be found here.

What will happen after I have reported my fraud report?

We understand that during challenging periods, having a conversation can sometimes be more effective than exchanging messages. Rest assured, we're dedicated to providing support to our users at every step on the way.

The initial step to take is to temporarily restrict your account so we can ensure the safety of your balance. Upon reporting your case, we’ll contact the involved bank to recover lost money.

After we guarantee the security of your account, we’re going to contact you through our safe and encrypted in-app chat to make an appointment for a call. You're going to be kept informed about the situation and further steps, while we implement measures to prevent any recurrence. However, it's important to remember that bunq will never call you and therefore we’re going to be expecting your call on the appointed day.