More protection in online banking is the most important concern of the Federal Association of Consumer Organisations for the European elections. There is no other issue on which consumers feel so helpless.
95 percent of consumers feel inadequately protected against cybercrime when using online banking. This was the result of a Forsa survey commissioned by the German Consumer Organization Association (VZBV). Although there are already European rules to protect consumers, consumer advocates have found that banks repeatedly circumvent these obligations.
“Banks repeatedly accuse their customers of having acted with gross negligence,” says VZBV board member Ramona Pop. “However, our survey results show that consumers cannot reliably distinguish fraudulent intentions from genuine emails from their bank.” The VZBV is therefore calling for it to be made more difficult for banks to pass on damage caused by cyber attacks to consumers in the future.
Banking emails: Is this phishing or real?
In the study commissioned by the VZBV, online banking customers were shown simulated payment transactions, which they were asked to evaluate: Only six out of ten customers expressed suspicion when they were shown phishing emails or other fraudulent schemes – and at the same time four out of ten suspected fraud in real banking processes and official emails.
Apparently, customers are finding it increasingly difficult to distinguish between real and fake communication. This suggests that they should generally not click on emails, but always log directly into online banking – and respond from there.
Online banking fraud: In four out of five cases, customers are left with the costs
From the point of view of consumer protection groups, the frequent accusation made by banks against customers that they have acted with “gross negligence” is difficult to substantiate after this investigation. This would require that fraud was clearly evident.
In fact, consumers very often have to pay for fraud costs themselves when using online banking, as the European Banking Authority (EBA) recently found: While card payment fraud cases are borne more or less equally by customers and service providers, in four out of five cases of transfer fraud, customers are left to bear the loss themselves.
What was particularly revealing in the VZBV investigation was the reaction of those who had fallen for the scam: They declared that they wanted to massively restrict their digital lives in the future.
VZBV core demands: secure online banking, more clarity, less advertising tracking
In addition to better protection for online banking, consumer advocates are making five other key demands on politicians for the EU elections:
- Prohibit online profiling for advertising purposes
- Keeping electricity costs affordable for consumers during the energy transition
- Make the Nutri-Score label mandatory for food products across the EU
- Introduce consumption targets for electric cars
- Regulate advertising with social promises such as “free from child labor” so that they actually come true
For all of these demands, the Forsa survey conducted for the VZBV among consumers revealed a majority who described these topics as “rather important” or “very important”.
Europe is important for consumers
The EU has become increasingly important for consumer protection in recent decades: prominent regulations have been made at EU level, such as compensation for flight cancellations, the abolition of roaming charges and energy efficiency requirements for washing machines and refrigerators. The VZBV therefore does not believe that the EU burdens citizens with unnecessary bureaucracy. “Europe is a success story for consumers,” says Ramona Pop. “But we are convinced that Europe can do more.”
The Federal Association of Consumer Organizations has summarized the demands for the election on a newly designed website.
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Source: Stern
