Not upheld: scam reimbursement claim under Faster Payments Scheme rules complaint against Monzo Bank Limited trading as Monzo

Decision detail

Summary

Miss L paid a firm D £2,598 in July 2025 for customer relationship management services after receiving satisfactory services in May and June. After the July payments, D failed to deliver services and became unreachable, leading Miss L to believe she had been scammed. She claimed reimbursement from her bank, Monzo, which rejected the claim as a civil matter. The ombudsman upheld Monzo's decision, finding the complaint did not meet the Faster Payments Scheme definition of an APP scam, as Miss L paid the intended recipient for the intended purpose, with the conflict arising later. The ombudsman found the £135 compensation already offered by Monzo for handling delays to be fair.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Faster Payments Scheme reimbursement rules definition of an APP scam, which requires either that the recipient is not who the consumer intended to pay, or the payment is not for the purpose intended. The ombudsman found that Miss L paid the person she intended (D) and that while a conflict arose, the evidence did not demonstrate that D intended to defraud Miss L from the outset. The account use information provided by the beneficiary bank did not support an allegation of intent to defraud. The ombudsman concluded this was a civil dispute between Miss L and D rather than a scam, and therefore not covered by the reimbursement rules.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website