Not upheld: scam and fraud - refund claim complaint against Lloyds Bank PLC

Decision detail

Summary

Mr B complained that Lloyds Bank PLC refused to refund money he lost to an investment scam involving two payments to a fraudulent cryptocurrency platform. Lloyds intervened with a call to Mr B before processing the payments, during which advisors warned him about cryptocurrency scams and fake investment managers. The ombudsman found that while the intervention call could have been more thorough, it was proportionate to the circumstances and there was no evidence that stronger questioning would have prevented Mr B from proceeding, as he had ignored similar warnings from family members and negative reviews. The complaint was not upheld and no refund was ordered.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while the intervention call could have been more thorough, there was no evidence that more probing questions would have resulted in different answers from Mr B. Mr B had already demonstrated he would alleviate concerns through his responses, and he had ignored relevant warnings about cryptocurrency scams and fake investment managers. The balance between identifying potentially fraudulent payments and minimizing disruption to legitimate payments was appropriately struck by Lloyds' proportionate intervention.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website