Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against American Express Services Europe Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Ms B fell victim to an impersonation scam on 16 December 2025 when she was tricked by someone posing as her bank and the police into handing over her American Express credit card and PIN. Three transactions totalling £8,149 were subsequently made to retail merchants. American Express refused to refund the transactions, and Ms B complained to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The ombudsman found that although Ms B was tricked, she had consented to giving her card to the scammer, which under Section 84 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 made her liable for the transactions. The transactions were not sufficiently suspicious to require intervention, and they were properly authenticated using chip and PIN. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Under Section 84 of the CCA, a debtor can be held liable for loss arising from misuse of a credit token if the token was used by someone who acquired possession of it with the debtor's consent. Although Ms B was tricked into giving her card to the scammer, she did consent to handing it over, and the reason for that consent does not change the legal position. The transactions were authenticated using chip and PIN, and there was no fault on the part of the retail merchants. American Express's intervention on the third transaction was proportionate, and the earlier transactions were not sufficiently suspicious to require intervention given Ms B's previous transaction history.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website