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

Decision detail

Summary

Mr K fell victim to a job scam and sent £14,500 to scammers between September and November 2024. Revolut refunded payments made in October and November 2024 under the FPS Reimbursement Rules (totalling approximately £11,500 after deducting excesses), but refused to refund £6,000 sent in September 2024 as the rules were not in force at that time. The ombudsman upheld Revolut's position, finding the September payments were not sufficiently suspicious to warrant fraud prevention intervention, and that the FPS Reimbursement Rules cannot be applied retrospectively. Revolut did refund £200 in incorrectly applied excess charges.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that while Mr K was a victim of a scam, Revolut was not at fault for processing the September 2024 payments. The payments were not sufficiently uncharacteristic to trigger fraud prevention measures, as Mr K had made similar value payments in preceding months and the payments were spread out over time. The FPS Reimbursement Rules, under which later payments were refunded, were not in force when the September 2024 payments were made and cannot be applied retrospectively. Although PSPs are expected to look for fraud indicators, this must be balanced against the regulatory expectation to process authorised payments promptly. The ombudsman concluded that Revolut could not have successfully recovered the funds given the time elapsed before the scam was reported.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website