Not upheld: scam reimbursement and fraud prevention complaint against Bank of Scotland plc (trading as Halifax)

Decision detail

Summary

Mr A lost £500 to a scam travel agent in July 2025 and requested a refund from Halifax. Halifax declined, stating the payment was not covered by reimbursement rules and it had made no error. The ombudsman upheld Halifax's decision, finding that the receiving account did not meet the definition of a 'relevant account' under the Faster Payments Scheme Reimbursement Rules, and that Halifax had no obligation to prevent the loss as the payment was not suspicious based on the customer's transaction history. Halifax had already paid £30 compensation for complaint handling delays, which was deemed fair and reasonable.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The payment was not covered by the Reimbursement Rules because the receiving account was held by a money transfer service (not a customer of that service) and the money transfer service does not offer accounts that can send or receive faster payments. Therefore, the account did not meet the definition of a 'relevant account'. Additionally, Halifax had no obligation to prevent the loss as the payment amount was not suspicious in isolation, was consistent with Mr A's previous transaction patterns, and did not trigger fraud detection thresholds.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website