Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against Barclays Bank UK PLC trading as Tesco Bank

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S lost £200 to an impersonation scam when he purchased an Airbnb gift voucher via credit card, which was sent to the scammer instead of the intended recipient. He complained to Tesco Bank, arguing they should have detected the fraud and pursued recovery through Chargeback or Section 75 claims. The ombudsman found the payment was not sufficiently unusual to trigger fraud prevention systems and that no valid grounds existed for payment dispute claims since the merchant provided the service as contracted. The complaint was not upheld, and Tesco was not required to reimburse the funds.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that the payment was not sufficiently unusual to trigger fraud prevention systems. Additionally, as the payment was made to a genuine merchant and Mr S received the service paid for, there were no valid grounds for a Section 75 claim. The dispute was with the scammer, not the merchant, making a Chargeback claim unlikely to succeed. Tesco was therefore not obligated to raise payment dispute claims or contact the merchant directly.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website