Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against Santander UK Plc

Decision detail

Summary

Mr H was defrauded through a social media investment scam and made multiple payments to accounts with other providers before realizing the fraud. He requested reimbursement from Santander, which rejected the claim. Although Santander should have intervened in the payments and did so on one occasion, the ombudsman found it unlikely that further intervention would have prevented Mr H from continuing payments given his trust in the fraudster and his dismissal of fraud warnings from both Santander and his other provider. The payments fell outside the scope of the CRM Code and Reimbursement Rules, and Santander was unaware of Mr H's vulnerabilities. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While Santander should have intervened in the payments as it did on 21 April 2025, the ombudsman found it unlikely that further intervention or warnings would have prevented Mr H from continuing payments. Mr H was warned multiple times about fraud indicators that matched his exact circumstances but denied they applied and maintained his desire to proceed. The ombudsman concluded that Mr H's firm trust in the fraudster, likely due to sophisticated social engineering, could not reasonably be broken by Santander's fraud prevention tactics. The payments fell outside the scope of both the CRM Code (which was retired) and the Reimbursement Rules (which exclude payments to accounts held with other providers), so those schemes did not apply. The ombudsman could not consider Mr H's vulnerabilities as Santander was unaware of them.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website