A Lviv woman had a credit card opened in her name after a call from Kyivstar, leading to unauthorized expenses of 74,235 hryvnias. Here's the court's decision.
A credit account was created for the woman, the credit limit was increased, and 74,235 hryvnias were stolen. She states that an unknown individual, who called and identified themselves as an employee of "My Kyivstar", took possession of the funds. The citizen demands to terminate the credit agreement with PrivatBank. This is mentioned in the decision of the Pustomyty District Court of Lviv Region, published on November 26, 2024.
On January 17, 2024, an unknown person called the woman on her mobile phone from an unknown number, posing as an employee of "My Kyivstar" and illegally using electronic computing technology, independently created a credit bank card and increased the credit limit, thereby taking 74,235 hryvnias, which were withdrawn from the account in three separate transactions. On January 18, 2024, she contacted JSC CB "PrivatBank" and reported the fraudulent actions. The citizen also filed a complaint with the police, where her report was accepted, and the criminal offense was classified under part 4 of Article 190 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine, with the information entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations under No. 12024141360000295, and she was recognized as a victim.
"On January 17, 2024, there was an entry into 'Privat-24' using the plaintiff's financial phone number with confirmation of registration by entering the card's PIN code. During this procedure, the client enters their username, login, and password, which is known only to the plaintiff. After logging into 'Privat-24', a necessary payment is created, and a unique access key known only to them is entered, after which a payment order is sent to the bank, according to which the bank transfers the funds. These actions could only be performed using the plaintiff's financial phone. In the client verification form dated October 30, 2023, and in paragraph 14 of the application for joining the Terms and Conditions of banking services dated January 17, 2024, she signed an agreement with the bank regarding the use of a simple electronic signature. The defendant fulfilled their obligations under the credit agreement dated January 17, 2024, in full, and the plaintiff has not cited any violation of her rights specifically by JSC CB 'PrivatBank'. They referred to the positions of the Supreme Court outlined in the rulings dated April 10, 2019, in case No. 144/287/17-c (proceeding No. 61-31835sv18) and April 10, 2019, in case No. 524/3979/16-c (proceeding No. 61-20290sv18), according to which the existence of a criminal proceeding cannot indicate, due to the presumption of innocence, that a crime was committed against a person until a verdict is issued that establishes such circumstances. Moreover, the criminal proceeding entered into the Unified Register of Pre-Trial Investigations was closed, no guilty parties were identified, and the absence of guilt on the part of the plaintiff was not proven, let alone the involvement of other individuals in the transfers of funds and the conclusion of agreements on January 17, 2024," - stated PrivatBank.
What was the court's decision?
The court denied the woman's claim. She approached the bank after the currency valuation date, that is, after the funds were credited to the recipient's account, and therefore the deadlines for taking actions to revoke the transfer were missed by the plaintiff as the initiator of the transfer.
"However, no evidence that would conclusively establish facts of fraudulent actions with the plaintiff's card accounts, as a result of examining the application regarding the commission of a criminal offense, was provided to the court," - emphasized the court.