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

Decision detail

Summary

Mr H lost approximately £250,000 to an investment scam through his Revolut account via 28 payments made between April and July 2025. He requested Revolut refund the money, claiming the firm should have done more to prevent the scam. Both Revolut and Mr H's other account provider intervened multiple times and provided warnings about investment scams, but Mr H ignored these and actively provided misleading information to facilitate the payments. The ombudsman found that Revolut took proportionate steps to protect the customer and could not have prevented the scam given the customer's deliberate deception and disregard of warnings. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Revolut is expected to monitor accounts for fraud and scams and take proportionate steps to protect customers. However, in this case, Revolut did intervene on multiple occasions and provided warnings that specifically mentioned investment scam features. Mr H actively misled both Revolut and other providers about the nature of the payments, deliberately providing false information to allow transactions to proceed. Given that Mr H ignored multiple warnings and was actively misleading the firm, Revolut could not have uncovered or prevented the scam through proportionate measures. The banking protocol was not applicable as Revolut was not sufficiently aware Mr H was being scammed. Additionally, funds cannot be recovered under the APP reimbursement scheme as they were sent to accounts in Mr H's own name.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website