Not upheld: scam and fraud - refund of authorised payments complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr T lost £3,358 to a job scam after making seven cryptocurrency payments from his Barclays account between 19-21 February 2025. He was directed to purchase cryptocurrency through a fake job platform and was told he needed to pay increasingly large amounts before withdrawing his supposed earnings. Barclays intervened on the seventh payment (£2,400) and spoke to Mr T, explicitly warning him about scams, but Mr T falsely stated the payment was for personal cryptocurrency trading with no third-party involvement because he feared the payment would be blocked. The ombudsman found that Barclays acted appropriately and that nothing it reasonably should have done would have prevented the loss, as Mr T deliberately misled the bank. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the legal starting position that firms must process authorised payments. While recognising regulatory requirements for fraud protection, the ombudsman found that Barclays did intervene appropriately on the largest payment and explicitly warned Mr T about scams. Critically, the ombudsman found that Mr T deliberately provided false information to Barclays (denying third-party involvement and claiming personal cryptocurrency trading) because he feared the payment would be blocked. The ombudsman concluded that even if Barclays had asked further questions, Mr T would likely have continued to mislead it, and therefore nothing Barclays reasonably should have done would have prevented the loss.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website