A Liverpool art gallery has been left £1,000 out of pocket after a fraudulent card transaction, with both its payment processing company and the national fraud reporting centre saying nothing can be done to recover the money.
dot-art, based on Queen Avenue in the city centre, was told by its payment processing company and Report Fraud UK, the national centre for reporting cybercrime and fraud, that the funds cannot be retrieved. The fraudulent purchase was for a large-scale landscape painting and took place in July, with the transaction reported as fraud in September.
Gallery's history of supporting artists
Over the past 20 years, dot-art has supported 600 artists through sustained, long-term engagement, offered 54 studio spaces, reached 21,000 schoolchildren, and delivered more than 30,000 hours of creative education. The organisation has also contributed to 100 public and corporate arts projects and received 16 regional and national awards.
Founder Lucy Byrne described the experience as "traumatic" and said it has left her "trusting people less".
Fraudulent payment details
Byrne told the ECHO: "We were having an ongoing conversation with a customer who said they were interested in the painting. We spoke a few times about paying in person, but it was eventually settled that they'd like to pay on the phone."
She added: "What I didn't see coming was a real person coming into our gallery with a stolen card and buying a £1,000 painting. Someone actively targeting a tiny, independent social enterprise and leaving us £1,000 out of pocket."
The name, phone number and email address did not match any details on the card. Byrne fought against the fraudulent payment but has been left with nowhere to turn after both Report Fraud and her payment processing company said nothing could be done.
In an email seen by the ECHO, the Report Fraud UK team determined that, based on the information currently available and investigative priorities, the report would be stored for future review, meaning the case was not allocated to police for investigation at this time.
Report Fraud's process and further complications
On average, Report Fraud receives over 40,000 reports a month, which are assessed based on available evidence and investigative priorities. Although not every report can be progressed for investigation, all reports are retained and assessed alongside other information to help build an understanding of offending patterns and support efforts to identify and pursue those responsible.
Byrne said: "Our payment processing company tells me we are liable because the payment was ultimately taken over the phone. I have since discovered that payments of this type come with far less protection, but I had no idea. It may have been in the small print from the contract from 20 years ago. Now I'm dealing with the ramifications."
After the case was closed last week, an administrative error from the card company charged dot-art gallery again for an additional £1,000. Although Byrne believes the money will be returned, she described this as the "icing on the cake" of an "awful" experience.
She added: "I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. The payment company took the money twice and I've been waiting two weeks for it to be returned. I've had to go through this whole traumatic experience twice. They offered me £50 compensation for the mistake, but I had to laugh. So I'm really angry. We have lost £1,000 that we really can't afford and that a company I have been paying monthly for over 10 years made this horrible situation significantly worse and that there appears to be nothing I can do - except stop taking phone payments and trusting people less."
