Not upheld: fraud reimbursement claim - investment scam complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr O complained that Barclays Bank UK PLC unreasonably refused to reimburse him for losses suffered in an investment scam where he made five payments of £2,000 each in September 2021 to a fraudster's business account. Barclays declined the claim citing insufficient evidence, and an investigator found Barclays had met its CRM Code obligations and Mr O lacked reasonable basis for believing the payments were legitimate. The ombudsman upheld the not-upheld decision, finding that Mr O's account of events contained significant inconsistencies, particularly regarding a cryptocurrency account's involvement in the scam, and that despite multiple requests, Mr O failed to provide clear evidence of the source of funds or a coherent explanation of how the scam unfolded. Without this clarity, the ombudsman could not fairly determine that Barclays acted unreasonably.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman acknowledged Mr O was a victim of a scam but found that multiple inconsistencies in Mr O's account of events prevented a fair determination of Barclays' liability. Despite several requests, Mr O failed to provide clear evidence of the source of funds for the scam payments or a coherent explanation of how the cryptocurrency account was involved. The ombudsman noted logical inconsistencies: that a fraudster would be unlikely to create a cryptocurrency account in Mr O's name if funds were already under their control, or to provide Mr O access to the account after the scam. Without clear understanding of how the scam unfolded, where funds ended up, and whether any were recoverable, the ombudsman could not fairly determine that Barclays acted unreasonably in declining the claim.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website