Not upheld: refusal to refund losses from investment/job scam complaint against J.P. Morgan Europe Limited trading as Chase

Decision detail

Summary

Miss O lost over £17,700 to a job scam between October and November 2024, where she was promised earnings for completing app optimization tasks but was required to deposit her own funds. Chase blocked four payment attempts and provided multiple warnings about investment scams, cryptocurrency fraud, and common scam indicators, but Miss O provided inconsistent explanations about the payments and continued to attempt transactions through alternative methods. The ombudsman found that Chase's interventions were proportionate and appropriate, and that there was no evidence Chase missed an opportunity to prevent the losses, particularly given Miss O's apparent influence under the scam and her willingness to circumvent Chase's controls by using her other bank account. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Chase took proportionate and appropriate steps to intervene and protect Miss O. The largest payment was blocked due to insufficient information. For subsequent payments, Chase issued appropriate warnings about investment scams based on the responses Miss O provided. The ombudsman was not persuaded that additional questions or earlier intervention would have prevented the losses, given Miss O's apparent influence under the scam, her inconsistent explanations, and her willingness to use alternative payment methods (bank H) when Chase blocked cryptocurrency payments. The ombudsman concluded Chase did not miss an opportunity to prevent what happened.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website