Not upheld: scam - refusal to refund complaint against Nationwide Building Society

Decision detail

Summary

Miss A complained that Nationwide Building Society should refund £890 she lost to a task-based job scam in March 2026, where she was directed to make payments to cryptocurrency providers. Nationwide refused to refund the loss, and the ombudsman upheld this decision. The ombudsman found that while firms should monitor for fraud risks, the individual payments were modest in value, did not escalate rapidly, and were made to legitimate cryptocurrency providers, making them insufficiently suspicious to warrant intervention. Although cryptocurrency payments carry fraud risks, not all such payments are scam-related, and the ombudsman considered intervention would not have been proportionate in these circumstances.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While Nationwide should monitor for fraud risks and unusual transactions, the ombudsman found that the payments in this case were not sufficiently unusual or suspicious to warrant intervention. The payments were modest in value, did not escalate rapidly, and were made to legitimate cryptocurrency providers. Although cryptocurrency payments carry known fraud risks, not all such payments are scam-related, so intervention on this basis alone would not be proportionate. The ombudsman balanced the firm's obligation to detect fraud against the need to allow customers to use their accounts without excessive questioning.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website