Unauthorised payments and identity theft
Have you lost money to someone who:
- deceived you into handing over your card or bank details and then used the information to steal your money?
- used your card or bank details without your permission?
- stole your identity or a cheque?
If so, and you feel your bank or payment service hasn’t done enough to help you, we can look into it.
This page covers complaints about the way a financial business has dealt with a scam involving unauthorised payments, stolen details or identity theft. It outlines how to bring a complaint and what will happen if you do.
On this page
- If you think you’ve been scammed
- What are unauthorised payments or identity theft?
- Can I complain about an unauthorised payment or identity theft?
- How to complain about an unauthorised payment or identity theft
- How we resolve complaints about unauthorised payments and identity theft
- Further help and information
Handling complaints about identity theft and scams that involve unauthorised payments?
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 unauthorised payments or identity theft?
These scams fall into three categories.
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A scammer may have tricked you into handing over financial information – such as bank or card details – and then withdrawn money from your account or used your card.
For example, you may have:
- received an email or text message you thought was real, but it linked to a fake website where you entered their bank details
- been tricked into sharing personal banking information – such as a password or PIN number – only to find a fraudster has taken money from their account
- had a phone call claiming to be from a bank or another organisation you trust – which seemed genuine at the time – where the caller persuaded you to hand over information about their bank account or card
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You might have:
- discovered payments – or transactions – on your bank statement that you don’t think you made
- lost your bank card and then discovered it was used – possibly by the person who found it
- had your card stolen and the thief has used it
- suspected someone of borrowing your debit or credit card without your permission – this may even be a member of your family or someone else you live with
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You may have been the victim of identity (ID) theft.
This is where a fraudster uses your identity to get goods or services, such a loan in your name. They then withdraw money from that loan leaving you to pay it back.
Can I complain about an unauthorised payment or identity theft?
If you’ve lost money because through a scam, an unauthorised payment or identity theft – and you’re unhappy with the way your bank, lender or another financial business handled things – we may be able to help.
We can’t help solve the crime – that’s a matter for the police. But we can investigate how your bank, payment service or lender, dealt with it.
How to complain about an unauthorised payment or identity theft
Our service is free and easy to use.
- Before bringing your complaint to an ombudsman, you should make a formal complaint to the company involved.
- If they don't send you a final response letter within eight weeks – or you're unhappy with their response – you can complain to an ombudsman.
- Start by using our complaint checker, to make sure whether we can deal with your complaint. It will ask you about some of the things we need to know upfront and help you make sure you’re ready to send us your complaint.
- Fill in our online complaint form. Your case will be assigned to a case handler who will get in touch when they start to investigate.
- To help us consider a complaint fairly, we’ll ask you to provide more information, such as:
- how you became aware of the problem or that money had left your account without your consent
- whether any of your important documents, such as passports or driving licences, have gone missing, and
- if so, about how that may have happened – for example, how did you discover that documents were missing, did you report it to get replacement documents and do you have any proof of this
How we resolve complaints about unauthorised payments and identity theft
We’ll make our decision about what happened using evidence from you, the financial business and any relevant third parties. To reach a decision, we'll also consider:
- the relevant law
- any regulations that applied at the time
- any industry codes of conduct in force at the time
- how you became aware of a scam, unauthorised payment or ID theft
- any evidence – such as letters and emails, for example – that shed light on what happened
- how you may have been manipulated into sharing information if you were the victim of a scam
- how you keep personal banking information and card details secure
- whether your personal banking information, card details, documents – such as passports or driving licences – have gone missing at any point, and if so, what happened and how you discovered this
We’ll look at what happened to assess whether you made the payment, or gave someone else permission to make it on your behalf.
If we think you didn’t make the payment, in most cases we'll want to know whether you acted with ‘gross negligence’ – for example, when keeping your card, PIN or other bank details secure.
‘Gross negligence’ is much more than not being careful. It means you acted extremely carelessly or gave the details away on purpose.
If we find that’s not so, we’ll tell the financial firm to give you the same amount of money as you’ve lost, possibly with interest.
We may also tell them to pay you compensation for any distress or inconvenience you have suffered.
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 SeSerious Fraud Office has published a page listing organisationsrious Fraud Office has published a page listing organisations who offer support and advice for those affected by fraud and scams.
