Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against MONZO BANK LIMITED

Decision detail

Summary

Ms O fell victim to a job scam that required her to make deposits to a cryptocurrency exchange. She made 8 transfers totalling £5,000.95 from her Monzo account between 13-19 June 2025, all authorised by her but made under false pretences. Monzo declined to refund her, arguing the loss occurred on her cryptocurrency account. The ombudsman found that while the payments were to an unfamiliar payee type (cryptocurrency), they were not sufficiently unusual given Ms O's previous payment history, were not made in rapid succession, and did not exhibit characteristics that would have required Monzo to intervene. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While Monzo must balance fraud prevention with minimal disruption to legitimate payments, the ombudsman found the payments were not sufficiently unusual or out of character to require intervention. Although Ms O had not previously purchased cryptocurrency, she had made similarly-sized payments before, the payments were not made in rapid succession (no more than two per day), and after the first payment the payee became established. The ombudsman noted that even if intervention on the final two payments was warranted, it would only have involved onscreen warnings which would not have resonated with Ms O given she had been dishonest about payment purposes with other institutions. Vulnerability could not be considered as Monzo was unaware of it at the time of the transactions.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website