Not upheld: Authorised Push Payment (APP) scam refund claim complaint against Monzo Bank Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs S paid £898.53 to a travel agent company (F) for a flight ticket in October 2025, but discovered upon arriving at the airport in December 2025 that no booking existed. F claimed a technical issue caused the cancellation and promised a refund that was never received. Mrs S complained to Monzo, which declined to refund the payment as a civil dispute rather than an APP scam. The ombudsman upheld Monzo's decision, finding that although Mrs S did not receive the service paid for, the evidence did not establish that F acted with fraudulent intent, and therefore the transaction did not meet the high threshold required to constitute an APP scam under the Reimbursement Rules.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Reimbursement Rules definition of an APP scam, which requires either that the recipient is not who the consumer intended to pay, or the payment is not for the purpose intended. Since Mrs S paid the company she intended to pay (F) for the purpose she intended (flight ticket), the first element was not met. For the second element, the ombudsman had to determine whether F acted with fraudulent intent. The ombudsman found that fraud must meet a high threshold (balance of probabilities, more likely than not) and concluded the evidence did not satisfy this. Key factors included: F was a legitimate registered company; the ticket was genuinely booked; there are plausible non-fraudulent explanations for non-delivery (poor management, incompetence); F's bank account activity was consistent with legitimate business operations; and F remained in contact and offered a refund, which is atypical fraudster behaviour.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website