Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against Revolut Ltd

Decision detail

Summary

Ms N fell victim to a scam after responding to a social media advertisement for remote work. She was instructed to open accounts with a fraudulent company and Revolut, and made multiple payments totalling over £12,000 to cryptocurrency exchanges. Revolut intervened multiple times with automated questions, but Ms N provided false answers as directed by the scammer. The ombudsman found that while Revolut should have intervened further on certain payments, there was insufficient evidence that additional intervention would have prevented the scam given Ms N's willingness to follow the scammer's guidance and provide false information to Revolut's safeguards.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While Revolut should have intervened further when Ms N made multiple payments to cryptocurrency exchanges (particularly payments 5 and 8), the ombudsman found that Ms N was deliberately providing false information to Revolut's questions at the scammer's direction. There was insufficient evidence that even if Revolut had intervened more extensively, Ms N would have provided honest information or that the scam could have been prevented. Ms N's claim of vulnerability at the time could not be substantiated as something Revolut would have been aware of.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website