Not upheld: scam / fraud - refund claim complaint against Revolut Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Miss A complained that Revolut Ltd refused to refund money she lost to a scam involving a fake task-based job. Revolut had intervened on multiple occasions, providing explicit warnings that Miss A was likely being scammed and identifying fraudulent links, but Miss A proceeded with the payments regardless. The ombudsman found that Revolut's interventions were sufficient and that even if Revolut had blocked further payments, Miss A would likely have used an alternative bank account. The complaint was not upheld, and no compensation was ordered.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the principle that firms should take proactive steps to prevent potentially fraudulent transactions, but must balance this against minimizing disruption to legitimate payments. The key finding was that Revolut did intervene multiple times and explicitly warned Miss A of the scam, but she chose to proceed regardless. The ombudsman concluded that even if Revolut had prevented further payments, Miss A would likely have used an alternative bank account to continue making payments, breaking the causal link between any failure by Revolut and the loss suffered. The ombudsman also noted that the payment values before 05 June 2025 did not reach levels that should have concerned Revolut's systems, and that Miss A's claimed vulnerability was not communicated to Revolut and could not have been detected from the calls.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website