Fraud and scams
If you’ve lost money because of fraud or a scam – and you're unhappy with how your bank or payment service provider handled things – we may be able to help.
We won't be able to help with solving the crime itself – that’s a matter for the police. But we can investigate how your bank or payment service dealt with it, even if you're not sure how you were defrauded. If in doubt, please bring your complaint to us and a specialist from our team will help you.
This page will tell you how to bring a complaint about the way your bank or payment services provider acted when you were scammed or the victim of fraud. It sets out the process and links to other sources of useful information.
On this page
Handling complaints about fraud and scams?
If you think you’ve been scammed
- Contact your bank or payment services provider immediately
- Contact the police on 101
- Report the scam to Action Fraud – the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime
- Keep records of all contact and correspondence between you and the scammer. This will be useful when you ask your bank – or payment service provider – to reimburse you and if you need to bring a complaint to our service later.
What are fraud and scams?
Fraud and scams are crimes where someone cheats someone else out of their money through theft or deception.
Anyone can fall victim to fraud or a scam. Criminals often pretend to be a real organisation or person and are always coming up with new ways to cheat people out of their money.
Sometimes criminals use more than one way to defraud a victim. Or you may not be sure exactly how the scammer defrauded you. Don't worry, we can still look at your case. If in doubt, please bring your complaint to us and a specialist from our team will help you.
You can read more about the different types of fraud and scam on the MoneyHelper website.
Scams where you’ve been tricked into making a payment
A scammer might persuade you to make a bank transfer or withdraw money to:
- keep it safe
- pay a fake invoice
- make a fake investment
- buy goods or services that don't exist
Unauthorised transactions and identity theft
You may have seen something odd or suspicious on your bank or card statement, for example, a payment that you didn't make or authorise.
A fraudster may have:
- convinced you to give them your bank or card details and then taken money from your account without your permission
- used your debit or credit card without your knowledge or permission
- stolen your identity (ID) to obtain goods or services, or borrow money which you then have to pay back
We can also help with disputes about payments you didn’t authorise that weren’t part of a scam.
Find out more about disputed transactions
Fraud markers
To try and stop fraud, financial businesses sometimes pass information to fraud prevention agencies. The agency will then add a 'marker' against someone’s name.
We can investigate what happened if you believe that a bank, payment service, insurance company, loan company – or any other financial firm – has made a mistake and put information about you on a fraud prevention database.
Bringing your complaint to us
Our service is free and easy to use.
When you bring a complaint to us, we’ll make a decision about what happened using evidence from you, the financial business and any relevant third parties. We'll also consider:
- the law
- any regulations that applied at the time
- any industry codes of conduct that were in force at the time
When we’ve finished investigating, we’ll tell you whether we think the business treated you fairly or not. And we’ll explain how we reached our decision.
If we think the business treated you unfairly, we'll tell them to put you back where you'd be if they hadn't made a mistake – for example, by reimbursing the money you’ve lost to the fraud or scam.
We might also ask them to make an award for any distress and inconvenience caused.
How long does it take?
The time it takes for us to investigate a complaint depends on what it's about, how complex it is and how quickly we can get all the information we need. For most complaints relating to fraud and scams, it takes one to two months for us to allocate cases, but can sometimes take longer.
We’re working hard to reduce the time it takes to allocate cases for investigation, so you may hear from us sooner than this.
- If you’re facing financial hardship or severe ill health, please let us know.
- The Money Advice Service website has a list of online debt advice services where you can get immediate and personalised help, if you’re experiencing financial difficulties.
What is your complaint about?
For more information about how we can help with a complaint about a specific type of pension product or service, use the links below.
Further help and information
Action Fraud is the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.
Citizens Advice offers guidance on what to do if you’ve been scammed.
Victim Support is an independent charity that supports victims of crime:
Age UK offer advice for the victims of fraud and scams
The Serious Fraud Office has published a page listing organisations who offer support and advice for those affected by fraud and scams.
