Are banks overburdened with responsibility for money lost to online scams?

Gareth Lodge, analyst at Celent, said social media does “seem to fall through the cracks” of regulation.

“If you had a builder who did a shoddy job, you’d ring trading standards,” he said. “If you bought something from eBay or Amazon, then eBay or Amazon would sort it and refund you.”

Lodge agreed that there should be a cross-industry approach. “While banks have a role to play, especially as a way of catching suspicious activity, they aren’t to blame, or indeed, even directly involved,” he said. “Social media should have a role to play, and there must be a risk to their reputation. I think, though, that it’s not just a role, but collaboration that is the key – tackling fraud is everybody’s business.”