A scheming conman walked off with a bagful of cash from Barclays, Britain's third-biggest bank, by posing as its chairman, the bank admitted Thursday. The fraudster marched into a Barclays branch and sauntered out with 10,000 pounds (19,600 dollars, 13,400 euros) from the account of Marcus Agius, 61.
It is believed the conman used the Internet to get the bank chief's personal details, then fooled call centre staff into issuing a Barclays credit card in his name.
Barclaycard has reimbursed Agius, who earns 800,000 pounds a year plus perks. "It was down to human error, procedures were not followed fully and we have learned from it," a Barclaycard spokesman told AFP. "This is an ongoing battle with professional fraudsters, in which we constantly review and refine the way we work to protect all our customers.
"All Barclays customers have a 100 percent fraud guarantee as long as they take reasonable care of their information." Agius said: "Credit card fraud is an issue which our industry continues to confront. Barclays is resolved to do everything possible on behalf of our customers to minimise its impact."