Rabobank has been ordered to compensate two customers who lost their savings in separate phone scams in 2013.

The financial services sector complaints body Kifid said on Monday that Rabobank had not taken sufficient steps to protect its customers against fraud. One person lost nearly €29,000, the other €42,000.

Both had been phoned by people posing as Rabobank officials and handed over security information to the callers. Their accounts were then systematically emptied of cash.

Sophisticated

Kifid said that both customers had themselves been negligent because they relayed secret information over the phone. This reduced the compensation payable by Rabobank by €7,500 and €5,000 respectively.

However, both customers were victims of a ‘very sophisticated con’ in which the caller had specific information about the consumers’ bank accounts to hand. This means customers could easily assume the caller came from the bank, Kifid said.

The organisation said apart from warnings, measures which Rabobank could take to reduce fraud include a day limit on internet withdrawals or the introduction of a time delay on payments.