Not upheld: investment scam - refund claim complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr M complained to Barclays after losing over £58,000 to an investment scam involving cryptocurrency between June and August 2023. He had been contacted by a scammer who persuaded him to invest through a platform, with funds sent via cryptocurrency exchanges. However, only a small portion of the money was Mr M's own; the majority came from loans by friends and family members with no documented evidence of the lending arrangements or the original source of the borrowed funds. The ombudsman found insufficient evidence of a genuine loss attributable to Mr M and therefore declined to uphold the complaint or order a refund.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman determined that before considering whether Barclays was responsible for any loss, it was necessary to establish that Mr M had suffered a genuine loss to the scam. The ombudsman found insufficient evidence of this because only a small proportion of the funds appeared to be Mr M's own money, with the majority coming from borrowed funds of unclear provenance. Despite requests for additional evidence, Mr M could not substantiate who lent him the money, on what terms, or where the original funds came from. The ombudsman concluded that without satisfactory evidence of a genuine loss, it would not be fair or reasonable to award a refund.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website