We collect judgments on disputes over liability for online banking fraud. In cases where courts have ordered banks or savings banks to credit their customers with debited money, we also name, to the best of our knowledge, the lawyer who won the decision in favor of the account holder.
Call with the bank number
In a case where a fraudster apparently called from the number of the savings bank holding the account, the Cologne regional court found no gross negligence on the part of the account holder and ordered the financial institution to reimburse its customer 14,000 euros.
Regional Court of Cologne, Sentence of November 20, 2023
Case number: 22 O 43/23 (non-binding)
Consumer Advocate: Lawyer David Stader from Stader Law Offices, Cologne
The fraudster knew the name of the bank consultant
According to the Stade Regional Court, a cooperative bank must reimburse a customer 24,890 euros after fraudsters received the letter with the activation code to set up the application to release orders. Even if the customer had transmitted the activation code himself – as the bank claims – this would not be gross negligence. Since the fraudster knew the name of the bank’s advisor and apparently called the bank’s telephone number, the customer did not have to be particularly suspicious, the court justified its decision against the bank.
Stade Regional Court, Judgment of June 30, 2023
File number: 6 O 267/22
Consumer Advocates: KWAG Lawyers, Bremen
Call from an alleged Telekom employee
A cooperative bank in northern Germany has to reimburse a customer a large part of the 32,000 euros that fraudsters stole from his account in a way that is still unclear. What is known is that a supposed Telekom employee called him and asked if he really wanted to sign up for a premium package for his mobile phone contract. He said no.
The caller then asked for help in cancelling the contract and requested the man’s Telekom customer account details. However, he did not provide the caller with his telephone banking PIN or any information about his bank details. However, he did receive several text messages from Telekom on his mobile phone. He passed these details on to the caller.
It is possible that the fraudsters obtained the data required for online banking via the Telekom customer’s account. In any case, they managed to transfer the man’s money to an account in Spain and then made him disappear from there. After the Kiel judges signaled during the hearing that they did not currently consider the man’s behavior to be gross negligence, the bank agreed to cover 77 percent of the damages.
Regional Court of Kielcomparison in 2023
File number: 12 O 40/22
Consumer Advocate: Lawyer Ulrich Husack from Juest + Oprecht, Hamburg
Increased liability of lawyers
On the other hand, according to the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, a lawyer and tax consultant employed at an international law firm is on the hook for 50,000 euros in compensation, despite having responded to a text message that apparently came from a bank telephone number. The judges at the Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main ruled that he should still have recognized the message as a typical phishing.
Higher Regional Court of Frankfurt am Main, Judgment of December 6, 2023
File number: 3 U 3/23 (not legally binding).