A woman from Vinnytsia accuses PrivatBank of losing 43,678 hryvnias from her cards—what was the court's ruling?

A woman lost 43,678 hryvnias from two PrivatBank cards. She claims that due to the bank's failure to apply enhanced authentication procedures during the disputed transactions on March 16, 2022, her rights were violated by the bank. Therefore, the client demands the return of the withdrawn funds. This is stated in the ruling of the Vinnytsia City Court of the Vinnytsia Region, published on November 8, 2024.

On March 16, 2022, three transactions totaling 41,970 hryvnias were made from the "Universal" card. Additionally, as shown in another statement, an amount of 1,708 hryvnias was withdrawn from the "For Payments" card. The account holder did not initiate these transactions and did not provide permission for their execution. Realizing that the funds had been withdrawn fraudulently, she contacted PrivatBank and the police.

"The plaintiff's assertion that the bank failed to fulfill its obligation to apply enhanced authentication does not correspond to the circumstances of the case. Enhanced authentication is indeed used during authorization in the 'Privat-24' system. The transfers on March 16, 2022, were facilitated by the plaintiff's reckless behavior, as established on June 12, 2023, in case No. 724/1709/22," said PrivatBank.

According to the results of an internal investigation conducted by the chief specialist for electronic payment protection and services of the Security Department for the Southwestern macroregion, it was found that the withdrawal of funds by the fraudsters from the client’s card was facilitated by her disclosure of confidential information after clicking on a phishing link.

What was the court's decision?

The woman was denied her claim. During the examination of the case, the court found no violation of the rights or legal interests of the citizen.

"As established by the ruling of the Chernivtsi Court of Appeal dated June 12, 2023, in case No. 724/1709/22, which has come into legal force, the withdrawal of funds from the plaintiff's cards was facilitated by her reckless behavior, as on March 16, 2022, after clicking on the phishing link 1.2ccv.site/lanke, she entered her 'Privat-24' account password, which automatically became known to a third party; electronic payment operations were carried out before she notified the bank of these circumstances. Thus, the existing circumstances undoubtedly prove that her actions contributed to the illegal use of information that allowed the initiation of payment transactions on March 16, 2022. Consequently, in light of the above, the bank should not bear responsibility for these operations. During the examination of this case, the court established the absence of any violated rights or legal interests of the plaintiff. Therefore, considering the above, the court concluded that in this case, there are no grounds or necessity for protecting the plaintiff's rights by declaring the transactions of March 16, 2022, invalid: in the amount of 370 hryvnias, in the amount of 11,000 hryvnias, and in the amount of 29,000 hryvnias from the 'Universal' card; in the amount of 1,708 hryvnias from the 'For Payments' card, as well as the obligation of JSC CB 'PrivatBank' to return to her the amount of 41,970 hryvnias by restoring them to the card account and the amount of 1,708 hryvnias by restoring them to the card account and canceling the accrued interest and penalties (fines, late fees) on the disputed transactions, as such demands are unfounded and unproven by proper evidence within the meaning of paragraphs 77-79 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, which would be sufficient, in the understanding of Article 80 of the Civil Procedure Code of Ukraine, to satisfy the claim," emphasized the court.

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