Not upheld: scam reimbursement / fraud protection complaint against Revolut Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs A lost funds to an investment scam after taking out a £19,000 loan and opening a Revolut account. She complained that Revolut failed to prevent the scam and should reimburse her loss. Revolut intervened on two occasions: with automated questions on an initial £2,950 payment and in-app chat on the £19,000 payment. However, Mrs A misled Revolut about the payment purposes following scammer instructions, selecting 'transfer to my other account' instead of 'investment' and answering 'no' to questions about cryptocurrency purchases despite providing a cryptocurrency certificate. The ombudsman found that Revolut's interventions were proportionate and that Mrs A's deliberate deception, combined with evidence that she continued to mislead the sending bank, meant that further questioning would likely not have revealed the scam. The complaint was not upheld and no reimbursement was ordered.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While Revolut is required to protect customers from fraud and monitor for suspicious activity, Mrs A authorised the payments and deliberately misled Revolut about their true purpose following scammer instructions. The ombudsman found that Revolut's interventions (automated questions on the first payment and in-app chat on the second) were proportionate responses. Although Mrs A provided a cryptocurrency certificate that should have prompted further questions, the ombudsman concluded that Mrs A was so heavily influenced by the scammer that she would have continued to follow their instructions to mislead Revolut even with more detailed questioning, as evidenced by her behaviour with the sending bank. Therefore, it would have been difficult for Revolut to meaningfully reveal the scam.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website