Not upheld: scam reimbursement claim complaint against National Westminster Bank Public Limited Company (NatWest)

Decision detail

Summary

Mr O lent £3,080 to an acquaintance between August and September 2024 for what he believed was a property purchase, but the money was not repaid. Mr O claims he was scammed because the documents shown to him were fabricated and the stated purpose was false. NatWest declined to reimburse him, stating it was a civil matter. The ombudsman found that while the CRM Code requires reimbursement for certain scams, it explicitly excludes private civil disputes. Without evidence that Mr O was deceived about the true nature of the payments or that fraud was intended from the start, this constitutes an unpaid loan dispute rather than a qualifying scam, and the complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while firms may sometimes fairly reimburse customers for authorised payments made as a consequence of fraud, the CRM Code explicitly excludes private civil disputes. The ombudsman could not verify that Mr O was deceived about the true nature of the payments or that the acquaintance intended to scam him from the start. Without evidence of deception constituting an APP scam, the transaction amounts to a civil dispute over an unpaid loan rather than a scam covered by the CRM Code. The payment amount did not warrant intervention by NatWest at the time it was made.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website