Partially upheld: scam reimbursement and poor customer service complaint against HSBC UK Bank Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr M complained that HSBC failed to prevent him losing £3,957.99 to a task-based job scam where he was directed to make payments to accounts in his own name. HSBC blocked a fifth payment and cancelled his card. The ombudsman found that new scam reimbursement rules do not apply to such transactions and that the payment amounts and patterns were not unusual enough to warrant HSBC intervention. However, the ombudsman upheld the complaint regarding customer service, finding HSBC took over eight weeks to respond to Mr M's scam report despite his stated mental health vulnerabilities and the claim not being complex. HSBC was ordered to pay £100 compensation for these service failures.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman concluded that the new scam reimbursement rules do not apply because payments were made to accounts in Mr M's own name and three were card payments. Outside these rules, HSBC should monitor for unusual transactions indicating fraud risk, but the individual payment amounts were relatively low and not unusual enough to warrant intervention. The payments were made over two days and leaving the account in overdraft was not unusual for this customer. HSBC acted reasonably by blocking the fifth payment. However, HSBC failed in its service obligations by taking over eight weeks to respond to Mr M's scam report despite knowing of his mental health issues and the claim not being complex, and by providing unhelpful updates during multiple contact attempts.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website