Partially upheld: Failure to prevent scam through inadequate fraud monitoring and intervention complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Miss D was scammed into making four payments of £567.88 each via WhatsApp messages impersonating an accommodation provider, believing each payment attempt was failing. Santander authorized all payments using her card details and OTPs but refused to refund them. The ombudsman partially upheld the complaint, finding that while the first two payments were not suspicious enough to require intervention, the third and fourth payments should have triggered human intervention due to the rapid pattern of identical payments to a new merchant. The ombudsman concluded that intervention would likely have uncovered the scam and prevented further losses, ordering Santander to refund payments 3 and 4 totaling £1,135.76 plus associated fees and interest.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While the first two payments were not individually unusual enough to require intervention, by the third payment a sufficiently suspicious pattern had emerged: three identical payments to the same new merchant occurring in rapid succession, following a declined transaction. Santander should have intervened with human contact to question Miss D about the purpose of these transactions. Had it done so, the scam would likely have been uncovered, and Miss D would have been deterred from making the third and fourth payments. The scam was sophisticated and Miss D reasonably believed payment attempts were failing, so she should not bear responsibility for losses after payment two.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website