Israeli Court Orders Postal Bank to Compensate Holocaust Survivor in Scam Case
An Israeli court ordered the Israel Postal Bank to pay compensation to an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor after scammers stole funds through a financial fraud.
A Small Claims Court in Israel has ordered the Israel Postal Bank to pay 39,900 shekels in compensation plus 1,000 shekels in legal costs to an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor who fell victim to a financial scam known as the "Russian scam."
The ruling, handed down by Judge Mart Dorfman, comes after fraudsters manipulated the elderly woman over a period of a month and a half, convincing her to transfer approximately 49,000 shekels from her account. The scammers called her claiming her son was suffering from a fatal brain disease and demanded money under strict secrecy to "save" him, forbidding her to inform relatives.
The court highlighted data from the Israel Police and the Bank of Israel showing that the "Russian scam" has surged by over 500% since 2020 among Russian-speaking seniors, resulting in the theft of approximately 100 million shekels in 2024 alone.
Judge Dorfman sharply criticized the Israel Postal Bank for breaching its duty of care, noting that the unusual transactions directly contradicted the customer's decades-long banking history and were conducted in person with bank tellers. The judge questioned why multiple large withdrawals within a short timeframe failed to raise red flags among staff.
The court rejected the bank's argument of contributory negligence by the plaintiff and ruled that the bank's failure to intervene—such as failing to contact the account's power of attorney by phone rather than merely sending generic text messages—justifies the maximum statutory compensation in small claims court.
