BNP Paribas Ordered to Reimburse Scam Victim for 56,000 euros

France’s top court has ordered BNP Paribas SA to compensate a scam victim, Reuters reports.

In 2019, an impersonator of a bank adviser called the victim and asked him to delete five beneficiaries of wire transfer from his list, and then use confidential code to add them back.

The fraudster leveraged “spoofing” technology to make the phone number appear identical to the number used by the real bank advisor and pretended to be a bank staff. The victim did not realize he had been scammed after two days when his 54,500 euros had been transferred from his account to the scammer.

The victim claimed damage from the bank but was refused since the bank believed he committed “serious negligence”.

However, the court believed that no adequate measures were taken by BNP Paribas to prevent what the client suffered and ordered the bank to repay him 56,000 euros euros with interest of 1,500 euros.

BNP Paribas said it acknowledged the order. It also claimed to have the system improved for combating scams and the client awareness raised.