Not upheld: scam - job fraud and cryptocurrency investment scam complaint against HSBC UK Bank Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs U complained that HSBC should refund £18,246 she lost to an alleged job scam conducted via social media. She claimed she was offered a commission-based job, but was required to pay cryptocurrency fees via Firm C to complete tasks and collect her salary, resulting in escalating payments over six months. HSBC declined to refund, noting the payments were made to Mrs U's own account with Company C and that they had provided appropriate fraud warnings. The ombudsman issued a provisional decision not to uphold the complaint due to insufficient evidence of a scam, and gave Mrs U additional time to provide supporting evidence. After Mrs U's representative submitted further materials (mostly unopenable files), the ombudsman maintained the not upheld decision, finding critical evidential gaps including no proof of initial contact about a fake job, no communications showing instructions to make crypto payments, and no clear connection between the crypto communications and the job scam claim.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that whilst Mrs U may have suffered financial loss, there was insufficient evidence to establish that a scam actually occurred. The key evidential gaps were: no evidence of initial contact about a fake job, no evidence of being offered the job or instructed to make crypto payments, communications about crypto appeared to relate to recovery efforts and post-dated the alleged initial contact, and no clear link between the crypto communications and the job scam complaint. Although Mrs U made payments to her own account with Company C, the statement was unclear and lacked supporting communications showing the funds reached scammers. The ombudsman noted that under the Payment Service Regulations, the account holder is responsible for properly authorised transactions, and the APP Scam Reimbursement Rules do not apply where payments were sent to another account in the customer's name. Without establishing a scam occurred, HSBC could not be fairly held responsible for refunding the payments.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website