Not upheld: scam and fraud - impersonation scam, authorised payment liability complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs R lost £2,764.29 to an impersonation scam where fraudsters posed as a travel agent to sell her non-existent flight tickets. She authorised three payments through her banking app and SMS confirmation, believing they were for legitimate travel services. Barclays declined her refund claim on the basis that the payments were authorised and a chargeback attempt had failed. The ombudsman upheld Barclays' position, finding that although Mrs R was deceived, she had knowingly authorised the payments, Barclays had no duty to intervene, and chargeback had no reasonable prospect of success.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Under the Payment Services Regulations 2017, Mrs R is liable for authorised payments. Although Mrs R was deceived by fraudsters, she was aware she was agreeing to the payments and understood funds would leave her account. The payments were therefore authorised. Barclays was not at fault for failing to intervene as firms must balance fraud prevention with minimal disruption to genuine transactions, and the payment values and legitimate merchant status did not warrant intervention. A chargeback had no reasonable prospect of success as the payments were authorised, and even a claim for goods and services not received would likely fail as the merchants appeared to be acting legitimately.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website