Not upheld: investment scam - failure to prevent fraud and recover funds complaint against National Westminster Bank Public Limited Company (NatWest)

Decision detail

Summary

Mr R complained that NatWest failed to prevent him from losing £894 to an investment scam where he was deceived into buying cryptocurrency and sending it to scammers. He made three small debit card payments to his own cryptocurrency account over two days, which he then converted and forwarded to the scammers. NatWest raised chargeback claims that were defended by the cryptocurrency provider merchant on the basis that it had provided the legitimate services Mr R paid for. The ombudsman found no failings by NatWest, as the payments were not suspicious enough to warrant intervention (being small, infrequent, and consistent with normal account activity) and the chargeback claims had no reasonable prospect of success since the merchant had a valid defence.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While NatWest ought to have been alert to fraud possibilities, the individual payments in this case presented no reasonable grounds for suspicion. The payments were small in value, not made in rapid succession, consistent with Mr R's normal spending patterns, and did not strain the account. The cryptocurrency destination alone does not automatically warrant suspicion without other concerning factors. The chargeback claims were properly defended because the merchant legitimately provided the services paid for (account crediting and cryptocurrency purchase facilitation), even though the customer subsequently misused those services by sending funds to scammers.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website