Not upheld: fraud - authorised push payment (APP) scam; failure to intervene complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S lost approximately £69,000 to an investment scam after responding to a social media advert, making 10 payments from his Santander account between January and April 2025. Santander refunded £3,000 under the APP scheme, and Bank 2 subsequently refunded £36,747 after being notified of the scam. Mr S complained that Santander should have done more to prevent the fraud. The ombudsman found that while Santander should have intervened at payment 5, Mr S bore significant responsibility for his losses due to his failure to question unrealistic returns, his untruthful answers when questioned, and his lack of due diligence. Since Mr S had already received refunds totalling more than 50% of his losses, the complaint was not upheld and no further refund was ordered.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While Mr S authorised the payments, banks should not always take authorisation at face value and should intervene where fraud risk is apparent. Payments 1-4 were not suspicious enough to warrant intervention. However, payment 5 (£10,000) coming one day after payments 3-4 should have triggered intervention. Nevertheless, Mr S bears significant responsibility for his losses: he should have questioned the unrealistic returns promised, should not have given untruthful answers when questioned, and should have questioned why a legitimate company would ask him to hide the real purpose of a loan. He has already received refunds totalling over 50% of his losses (£3,000 from Santander, £36,747 from Bank 2, plus £9,443 returned from destination account), which exceeds any reasonable award after accounting for his contributory negligence.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website