Partially upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against Bank of Scotland plc

Decision detail

Summary

Ms T was the victim of fraudulent Uber payments totalling £243.69 between June and October 2025. She repeatedly contacted Bank of Scotland to report the fraud, but the bank repeatedly asked the same questions without resolving the matter, causing significant frustration and inconvenience, particularly as Ms T was overseas at the time. BoS eventually refunded £238.70 of the disputed payments and £4.86 interest, but Ms T claimed she was promised £14.97 interest and sought approximately £4,000 compensation plus reimbursement of various costs including medical expenses and overseas call charges. The ombudsman upheld the complaint in part, confirming the refund of the outstanding £4.99 payment and awarding £300 compensation for poor service, but rejected claims for higher compensation and cost reimbursement as unreasonable.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman acknowledged that Ms T was a fraud victim entitled to refund of disputed payments and that BoS provided poor service by repeatedly asking the same questions without resolution. However, the ombudsman rejected claims for additional compensation and cost reimbursement on the grounds that: (1) the interest refund of £4.86 was reasonable as only £14.19 total interest was applied and Ms T was using the account for other purposes; (2) BoS should not bear costs incurred by Ms T while overseas as it is a UK bank for UK users; (3) medical costs cannot be fairly attributed to BoS; (4) account fees should not be refunded as Ms T continued using the account for other payments; (5) £300 compensation is fair and in line with FOS awards for similar complaints, as the ombudsman's role is to compensate for actual impact, not to punish the firm; (6) the account downgrade issue is a separate matter raised after the complaint was referred to FOS.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website