Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr R lost money to a scam involving a fake task-based job opportunity found on social media. He made several payments to a cryptocurrency provider in June 2025 before realising the scam. Barclays partially upheld his complaint, offering a 50% refund from the third payment onwards with interest and compensation. The ombudsman did not uphold Mr R's complaint for full refund, finding that although Barclays should have been concerned at the third payment, an intervention would not have prevented the loss because Mr R had agreed with the scammer to follow his instructions and deceive the bank if questioned. The ombudsman also found the 50% deduction fair given the suspiciously high expected return of the work.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While banks should take proactive steps to identify and prevent transactions that could involve fraud, there must be a balance as they cannot be involved in every transaction. Although Barclays should have been concerned at the third payment point, an intervention would not have prevented the loss because Mr R was willing to follow the scammer's explicit instructions to deceive the bank and claim the payments were his own decision. The 50% refund deduction is fair because the expected return was suspiciously high relative to the work required, which should have raised concerns in any reasonable person.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website