Partially upheld: fraud and scam - failure to prevent payment and poor service complaint against Barclays Bank UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Miss H fell victim to a sophisticated job scam between 13-16 March 2025, losing £8,317.46 across multiple payments to cryptocurrency and bank accounts. Barclays blocked an attempted £2,576 payment to the crypto company but Miss H circumvented this by transferring the same amount to her own bank account, which then went to the scammers. The ombudsman found Barclays should have blocked this second payment as it was clearly an attempt to circumvent their fraud prevention controls and exhibited multistage fraud patterns. Barclays was held 50% liable for the £2,576 payment due to contributory negligence. Additionally, the ombudsman upheld Miss H's service complaint regarding the Barclays agent's lack of empathy and professionalism when informing her of the scam, awarding £250 compensation.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Under Payment Services Regulations 2017 and Consumer Duty 2023, banks must monitor accounts for fraud and take reasonable steps to protect customers. While payments 1-7 were not suspicious enough to warrant intervention, payment 8 should have been blocked because: (1) it was the exact amount Barclays had just blocked to a high-risk crypto company, indicating an attempt to circumvent fraud controls; (2) it demonstrated multistage fraud with credits being immediately transferred out; (3) the combined 'me to me' payments were unusually high. Barclays' planned intervention with Miss H would have quickly identified the scam. Contributory negligence applied as Miss H should have been more cautious given the unsolicited offer, cryptocurrency requirement, and lack of formal contract. Liability was split 50/50. The service complaint was upheld as the agent lacked empathy, was rude, unprofessional, and provided incorrect information while Miss H was in distress.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website