Not upheld: scam reimbursement / fraud protection complaint against THE ROYAL BANK OF SCOTLAND PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs S lost £11,000 to a task-based job scam between August and September 2025, making multiple payments via a money remittance service she had used before. When she discovered the scam, RBS declined to reimburse her, stating the payments initially went to the money remittance service. The ombudsman found that while RBS has a regulatory duty to protect customers from fraud, the payment pattern and values were not unusual enough to require earlier intervention. Although RBS did block a payment to a new payee on 11 September 2025, the ombudsman found Mrs S's explanation (sending money to a family friend) was plausible and that even earlier intervention would likely have been unsuccessful because Mrs S was following the scammer's instruction to mislead the bank. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the starting legal position that customers are responsible for authorized transactions. While recognizing RBS's regulatory duty to protect customers from fraud, the ombudsman found that the scam payments were not unusual enough in value or frequency to require earlier intervention, particularly as they went to a known money remittance service. Although RBS did intervene on 11 September 2025, the ombudsman found no obvious signs Mrs S was being dishonest and the payment purpose provided was reasonable. The ombudsman noted that even if RBS should have intervened sooner, it was unlikely they could have uncovered the scam because Mrs S would likely have continued following the scammer's instruction to mislead the bank.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website