Not upheld: unauthorized account access and fraud liability complaint against eToro (UK) Limited trading as eToro

Decision detail

Summary

Mr H complained that eToro failed to prevent unauthorized access to his trading account after he reported it had been hacked. He claimed he contacted eToro before funds were withdrawn, but the funds were subsequently transferred out of his account totaling over £10,000. eToro argued the funds had already left before they were properly notified and that the account had been compromised through a likely sim swap attack, not a system breach. The ombudsman found that Mr H's initial call to a phone number designated for lost or stolen cards did not constitute proper notification, and that when the correct time zone conversion is applied, the transactions had already been completed before Mr H notified eToro through the appropriate online chat channel. With Two-Factor Authentication enabled and no system breach identified, the complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman concluded that Mr H failed to use the appropriate channel to report the security issue. Although Mr H called at 14:34 BST, the phone number was designated for lost or stolen cards and included a pre-recorded message directing customers to use online channels. The ombudsman found that Mr H had access to the online chat function as a visitor and could have used this method. Critically, when the BST/GMT time difference is correctly applied, the funds had already left the account by 13:59 GMT before eToro was properly notified via online chat at 14:30 GMT. With Two-Factor Authentication enabled and functioning correctly, and no system breach identified, the ombudsman found no failing on eToro's part.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website