Not upheld: scam and fraud - refund claim complaint against Santander

Decision detail

Summary

Miss H complained that Santander should refund the full amount of money she lost after being scammed through fraudulent task-based job payments. Santander had already refunded some payments but refused to refund the full amount. The ombudsman examined whether Santander should have detected and stopped the payments through its fraud checking systems. Finding that the individual payment values were not remarkable and the payment pattern across two accounts to multiple recipients created no clear warning signs, the ombudsman concluded Santander acted reasonably and did not uphold the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman balanced the bank's obligation to protect customers from fraud against the practical reality that not every payment can be checked. Individual payment values were not remarkable enough to trigger automatic checking systems. The payments went to multiple recipients from two accounts, creating no discernible pattern of concern. Miss H's regular multiple daily payments on her credit card prior to the scam provided no additional warning signs. While sympathetic to Miss H's difficult circumstances, the ombudsman found no evidence Santander knew of vulnerabilities or acted unreasonably.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website