Belfius first Belgian bank in criminal court over phishing refusal to refund €100,000
Belfius faces criminal court in Belgium after refusing to refund a phishing victim €100,000. It marks the first criminal prosecution of a Belgian bank in a phishing case.
Belfius faces criminal charges over refusal to repay phishing victim
Google News IE — Crime (en) reports that Belfius has become the first Belgian bank to face criminal court proceedings over its refusal to refund a phishing victim, in a case that could set a significant legal precedent for the country's banking sector.
The case centres on a French-speaking woman who lost approximately €100,000 last year after a fraudster posed as a Card Stop employee and deceived her into transferring the funds. When she sought reimbursement, Belfius declined, leading her to pursue civil proceedings.
Under Belgian law, the fundamental obligation on banks is clear: payment service providers must immediately refund any payment to which a customer has not genuinely consented. Banks may seek to recover that money afterwards, but only by taking legal action themselves and demonstrating that the customer was grossly negligent in falling for the fraud. In practice, however, banks routinely withhold provisional refunds in phishing cases, arguing that the customer either consented to the transfer or acted with gross negligence.
Several Belgian courts have pushed back against that approach in recent months, ordering banks to make immediate refunds whilst responsibility investigations remain ongoing. Those rulings reflect a growing judicial view that valid consent requires a customer to have consciously authorised a specific transfer to a specified account.
The woman has now extended her legal action against Belfius to the criminal courts, invoking a lesser-known provision of Belgian law under which a payment service provider that fails to comply with fraud rules faces criminal liability.
As far as is known, this marks the first time a Belgian bank has faced criminal proceedings in connection with a phishing dispute. Belfius risks a financial fine, but the more consequential exposure is the precedent a criminal conviction would establish — one that could fundamentally alter how Belgian banks handle phishing reimbursement claims going forward.
Source: Google News IE — Crime (en)