Not upheld: scam liability and fraud prevention complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Ms M complained that Barclays failed to refund £9,700 she lost to an impersonation scam in May 2025, where a fraudster posing as Barclays' fraud team persuaded her to transfer money to her own account with another payment provider. The ombudsman found that Ms M had authorised the payments and they were sent to a genuine account she had previously used. Although Ms M was a victim of a convincing scam, the ombudsman determined that Barclays was not at fault for failing to prevent the fraud, as the account activity did not appear sufficiently suspicious to warrant intervention at the time of the disputed payments. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, customers are normally responsible for authorised payments even when lost to scams. While Barclays should intervene in suspicious circumstances, the ombudsman found that by the time of the second £4,900 payment, no concerning fraud pattern had developed. The account had a large balance, the payments were to a genuine regulated firm Ms M had used before, and the amounts were not so unusual as to warrant intervention. Barclays did intervene appropriately on the £15,000 payment. Once card payments were authorised, Barclays could not have stopped them, and recovery was not possible as the funds went to Ms M's own account.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website