Not upheld: scam and fraud - failure to prevent unauthorized payments complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr P complained that Barclays Bank UK PLC should refund approximately £27,000 in losses from a scam where he was deceived into making over 90 payments to a cryptocurrency exchange between May 2024 and January 2025. The scam involved fraudulent claims that funds could be recovered from a cryptocurrency wallet. While the ombudsman acknowledged that Barclays should have intervened on payments of £3,000 or over due to the higher fraud risk associated with cryptocurrency exchanges, the complaint was not upheld. The ombudsman found that intervention would not have prevented the scam because Mr P demonstrated a willingness to provide false information when his other account provider questioned similar payments, making it unlikely that honest disclosure would have occurred with Barclays either.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While banks have a duty to protect against fraud and conduct due diligence on large transactions, the ombudsman found that although Barclays should have intervened on payments of £3,000 or over to cryptocurrency exchanges, such intervention would not have prevented the scam. The key finding was that Mr P demonstrated a willingness to provide false information to process payments, as evidenced by his responses when his other account provider intervened. The ombudsman concluded that Mr P's dishonesty when questioned would have made it very difficult for Barclays to uncover the scam, and therefore Barclays missed no opportunity to prevent the loss.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website