Not upheld: scam / fraud protection failure complaint against Lloyds Bank PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr C lost £3,600 to a cryptocurrency investment scam after being recommended a trading platform by a family member. He made four debit card payments to a cryptocurrency exchange account in his name between May 2025, believing he was making legitimate investments. When he tried to withdraw profits, he was asked to pay additional fees and realised he had been scammed. Mr C complained to Lloyds, arguing it should have contacted him to verify the payments and uncovered the scam. The ombudsman accepted Mr C had been scammed but found Lloyds did not act incorrectly, as the payments were consistent with his previous account usage, spread over 17 days without increasing frequency, and did not significantly deplete his account balance. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Although the ombudsman accepted on the balance of probabilities that Mr C lost money to a scam, Lloyds could only be required to compensate if it had acted incorrectly. The payments were not sufficiently unusual or suspicious: they were spread over 17 days without increasing frequency, were consistent with Mr C's previous account usage, did not significantly deplete his account balance given the large deposit received, and were to a cryptocurrency account held in his own name. The ombudsman balanced the need to identify potentially fraudulent payments against minimising disruption to legitimate transactions.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website