Not upheld: scam and fraud - failure to prevent/refund losses complaint against HSBC UK Bank Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr N complained that HSBC failed to refund losses from a romance scam (June-September 2023) and phishing scam (May 2024), claiming approximately 43 transactions totalling over £25,000 to crypto exchanges should have been stopped. HSBC had already refunded £6,558.68 (50% of some payments). The ombudsman found insufficient evidence of scams and determined that even if evidenced, HSBC had no obligation to intervene - the romance scam transactions were too small to be unusual, and the phishing scam occurred months or years after the legitimate crypto purchases were made. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found insufficient evidence that Mr N was scammed. For the romance scam, the three transactions totalling under £700 were not large enough or sufficiently unusual to trigger fraud monitoring systems. For the phishing scam, even if evidenced, HSBC could not have intervened because Mr N was not being scammed at the time of the transactions - he was legitimately purchasing crypto and NFTs. The scam occurred months or years later when he was tricked into giving access to his wallets. No proportional intervention by HSBC could have prevented this.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website