Not upheld: authorised push payment scam reimbursement complaint against Nationwide Building Society

Decision detail

Summary

Miss A lost £630 to a purchase scam after making a bank transfer to a seller found on social media. Nationwide declined reimbursement, and the FOS Investigator agreed. Miss A appealed, citing her vulnerability due to recent bereavement and arguing the transaction deviated from her usual account activity. The ombudsman upheld the original decision, finding the payment did not meet the reimbursement rules criteria (destination account not in UK) and that no other factors warranted intervention by Nationwide, despite acknowledging Miss A's difficult circumstances.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the reimbursement rules which require the destination account to be held in the UK. As the account was not UK-based, Nationwide was not required to reimburse under these rules. Outside the reimbursement rules, the ombudsman considered whether Nationwide should have intervened based on fraud detection principles. While the payment was larger than usual, one-off large payments to new payees are not uncommon. The ombudsman acknowledged Miss A's vulnerability due to bereavement but found this did not make intervention warranted given the payment value, timing, and destination. No factors were present that should have triggered suspicion.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website