Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against HSBC UK Bank Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Miss D complained that HSBC failed to reimburse her for losses from a purchase scam involving two international payments of £1,500 each made in September and November 2025 to buy furniture that never arrived. HSBC declined her fraud claim in January 2026. The ombudsman found that although firms may sometimes need to intervene to protect customers from fraud, the disputed payments were consistent with Miss D's usual spending activity and were not sufficiently unusual or suspicious to have alerted HSBC to a fraud risk. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the legal starting position that firms must process authorised payments in accordance with regulations and account terms. However, firms may need to intervene where payments indicate fraud risk. The ombudsman examined whether HSBC should have identified a fraud risk based on what it knew about Miss D and the disputed payments. The payments were consistent with her normal activity, were relatively low-value, spread over two months, and had nothing suspicious about their destination. Therefore, there were insufficient grounds for HSBC to have identified a fraud risk or intervened.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website