Woman ‘aggressively manipulated’ by scammers awarded compensation

An elderly woman who was “aggressively manipulated” by fraudsters has been awarded compensation by the financial arbiter. 

OpenPayd, a Maltese-licensed payment provider, was ordered to pay the woman £23,300 (€26,600) for crediting her money to third parties without her knowledge. 

Times of Malta together with reporting partners OCCRP and Amphora Media, has previously revealed how OpenPayd appears in a global investment scam money trail that has seen victims from all walks of life and dozens of countries fall prey to professional fraudsters.  

OpenPayd is one of the many payment firms used by scammers to funnel money from would-be investors to fraudsters via sham financial trading platforms.  

The firm has already featured in three prior cases before the arbiter, which had all been dismissed on technical grounds. 

In this latest case, arbiter Alfred Mifsud shot down OpenPayd’s argument that the scam victim was not a client of theirs.

The woman fell prey to fraudsters who convinced her to invest her money in cryptocurrency. Through a series of transactions, the victim’s money found its way to cryptocurrency exchanges that held accounts at OpenPayd. 

It was found that the woman was coached and encouraged by the scammer to create different accounts with various banks as instructed through multiple calls and communications held.

The scammer, who had gained her trust, had remote access to her phone through remote access software called AnyDesk, and even set up accounts on her behalf. 

She was persuaded this was safe as accounts were in her own name, including the OpenPayd account. 

Despite being named as the beneficiary of the funds transferred to OpenPayd, the arbiter found the money was transferred to what is known as a virtual IBAN. 

Although the virtual IBAN appeared to be in the woman’s name, the virtual IBAN system actually directs payments to one designated master account which in this case was held by the cryptocurrency exchanges.

The arbiter noted how once the funds entered into the accounts of the cryptocurrency exchanges, they came under full control of the fraudsters who, having clinched their reward, evaporated into thin air. 

The arbiter said that OpenPayd took it upon themselves to just credit the woman’s funds to a third-party client of theirs, without the victim’s permission and without any internal systems to ensure clarity about a payment involving a virtual IBAN. 

OpenPayd is appealing the decision.