Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against eToro Money UK Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Mr V complained that eToro Money failed to prevent him from making payments as part of a scam after being deceived by fraudsters impersonating his bank and the FCA. He made four payments totalling £4,350 from his eToro Money account to his own eToro trading account, which were converted to cryptocurrency and transferred to scammers. The ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding that the payments were not sufficiently suspicious to require intervention, as they were to an account in Mr V's own name, were modest in amount relative to the account's trading limits, and aligned with the account's established purpose.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While eToro Money has a duty to intervene in suspicious transactions, the ombudsman found the payments were not sufficiently unusual or suspicious to warrant intervention. The payments were to an account in Mr V's own name, the amounts were not large in the context of a trading account with a $20,000 annual limit, and the account's stated purpose was to facilitate such transfers. The rapid succession of payments alone was insufficient to trigger intervention given the modest amounts involved.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website