Not upheld: scam/fraud - reimbursement claim for authorised payment complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs S lost £2,386.63 to an impersonation scam in February 2026 after being tricked by someone posing as her husband's nephew and a solicitor into sending a money transfer payment. She complained to Santander seeking reimbursement, but the bank refused. The FOS investigator and ombudsman both found the complaint not upheld, determining that the payment was authorised by Mrs S and was not sufficiently unusual or suspicious to require Santander to conduct additional fraud checks or prevent the transaction. The ombudsman noted that while sympathetic to Mrs S's circumstances, banks must balance fraud prevention with allowing customers to use their accounts, and a single payment via legitimate money transfer service without other fraud indicators would not typically trigger additional scrutiny.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Under Payment Services Regulations 2017, banks must process authorised payments and customers are presumed liable in the first instance. While banks may take additional steps to protect customers from fraud, the ombudsman found the payment was not sufficiently unusual or suspicious to warrant additional checks. The payment amount, while significant to Mrs S, was not of a value typically concerning to banks. The use of a legitimate money transfer service without other fraud indicators was unlikely to raise concerns. A single payment rather than multiple payments is less indicative of scam activity. Banks must balance fraud prevention with allowing customers to use their accounts. Regarding recovery, chargeback would not have succeeded as the legitimate merchant provided services as intended.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website