Not upheld: scam liability and fraud protection complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr D was victim of an investment scam and made eight payments totalling significant losses using his Santander account, with the first two going to a cryptocurrency exchange and the remainder to his own account at another bank. Santander refused to reimburse the losses, arguing it had no liability as payments went to Mr D's own accounts. The ombudsman upheld Santander's position, finding the payments were not unusual enough to warrant intervention given Mr D's account history of regular large transactions, and that even if warned, Mr D had previously ignored detailed scam warnings from another bank.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Mr D was genuinely victimised by a scam, Santander had no obligation to intervene. The payments were not unusual or concerning in the context of Mr D's account history of regular large transactions. The payments to Mr D's own account at another bank did not warrant intervention. Additionally, even if Santander had intervened, Mr D had already ignored detailed warnings from another bank about cryptocurrency investment scams, so intervention would likely have been ineffective.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website