Not upheld: authorised push payment scam - refund claim complaint against Lloyds Bank PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr and Mrs C lost £620 to a scam when they purchased concert tickets from someone whose social media account had been hacked. They made an authorised payment to a Gibraltar account and reported it to Lloyds after becoming suspicious. Lloyds refused to refund the payment, stating it was not covered by reimbursement rules, but paid £75 compensation for incorrectly telling them they would be refunded and for poor service. The ombudsman upheld Lloyds' position, finding that the Reimbursement Rules do not apply to payments sent outside the UK and that the payment was not suspicious enough to warrant intervention by the bank.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The Reimbursement Rules introduced by the Payment Systems Regulator only apply to payments made to accounts held in the UK. Since the payment was sent to a Gibraltar account, the Reimbursement Rules do not apply. While firms should monitor accounts and look for suspicious transactions, the £620 payment was not particularly large, was consistent with previous transaction patterns, and did not use a suspicious proportion of available balance. Therefore, Lloyds was not unreasonable in not identifying the risk or carrying out additional checks. The £75 compensation for incorrect information and poor service was fair and reasonable.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website