Scams where you’ve been tricked into making a payment
Scammers trick people into transferring money. This might be by convincing someone to pay money into their account – known as an ‘authorised push payment’ (APP) or a ‘bank transfer’ scam. Or they might persuade someone to make a card payment or withdraw cash.
If any of these things have happened to you – and you’re unhappy with how your bank or payment services provider handled things – we may be able to help.
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
- If you think you’ve been scammed
- What sort of scams involve withdrawals, bank transfers or card payments?
- Can I complain about how a firm dealt with a scam where I was tricked into making a payment?
- How to complain about the way a firm dealt with a scam
- How we resolve complaints about scams involving bank or card transfers
- Case studies
- Where to go for help
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 sort of scams involve withdrawals, bank transfers or card payments?
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.
The most common scam is known as a ‘authorised push payment’ (APP) or a ‘bank transfer’ scam. This is where a scammer might persuade you to transfer your money into another account, for example, to:
- pay a fake invoice
- make a fake investment
- make a payment you believe is going to a legitimate person or organisation, but who is in fact a fraudster
Other scams where a fraudster tricks you into authorising a payment to their account include:
- using your credit or debit card to pay into a fake investment or buy something that never arrives
- withdrawing cash and handing it over, for example for building works that are never completed
Read more about different types of scam on the MoneyHelper website
While it’s always upsetting to not get what you paid for, not all disputes are scams.
In some cases, we’ll need to consider whether you’ve fallen victim to a scam or are involved in a civil dispute. For example, you might have bought something or a service from a legitimate business or individual but the work they did or product they sold was poor.
Can I complain about how a firm dealt with a scam where I was tricked into making a payment?
If you’ve lost money to a scam – and you're unhappy with how your bank or payment services 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 provider dealt with it.
Special rules may apply to APP – or bank transfer – fraud, so your bank or payment service may have to reimburse you.
However, you can still bring your complaint to us if the rules don’t apply. We’ll look into whether your bank or payment service provider should have suspected you were being scammed and done more for you.
These rules only cover:
- individuals
- charities with an annual income of less than £1 million, and
- micro-enterprises – not larger businesses
They don’t apply to:
- transfers from a UK account to an account overseas
- transfers from your account to another account that you control, for example a cryptocurrency account
- card, cash and cheque payments
How to complain about the way a firm dealt with a scam
Our service is free and easy to use.
- If you're unhappy with the way your bank or payment services provider dealt with the situation when you were scammed, you must make a formal complaint to them first.
- They must look into things and get back to you within 15 days – either with a response to your complaint, or to explain why they can’t yet give you a response. They then have to send you a response within 35 days. If you’re not happy with this response – or they don’t reply in time – you can bring your complaint to us.
- Our complaint checker will tell you more about some of the things we need to know upfront. It will help check whether you’re ready to bring your complaint to us and take you to our online complaint form.
- 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, which will usually include:
- all correspondence between you and the scammer, of all types – for example, emails, records of calls, text messages etc
- a detailed description of the events as they unfolded
- any contracts, invoices, documentation you might have relating to the scam or payments you made
- old bank statements – in some cases – to understand the source of funds for the payments made
- whether anyone else’s money is involved, or just yours
- anything you remember about what happened when you made the payments – if you spoke to anyone at the bank or payment services provider and, if so, what was discussed
- whether you need adjustments how we might need to adapt our service to make bringing a complaint to our service easier for you
How we resolve complaints about scams involving bank or card transfers
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, including the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code and the Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) and the CHAPS reimbursement rules
- good industry practice and/or relevant regulatory guidance
- the terms and conditions of the account that the disputed transaction was made from
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New rules – the Faster Payments Scheme (FPS) and the CHAPS reimbursement rules – came into force on 7 October 2024. These rules cover most transfers between UK bank and other accounts.
The rules require banks and other payment service providers to reimburse you up to a maximum of £85,000 if you're the victim of a scam.
You may be covered by the rules if you:
- made a transfer as part of a scam on or after 7 October 2024
- made the transfer to another UK account
- tell your bank or payment service provider about the scam no more than 13 months after the last payment you made
If the rules apply and you were particularly vulnerable to the specific type of APP scam, your bank or payment service provider must reimburse you.
In all other cases, if your bank or payment service provider turns down your claim for reimbursement, they must show that you acted with ‘gross negligence’. But ‘gross negligence’ is much more than not being careful.
And it will be up to them to prove that you acted with gross negligence. It won’t be down to you to show you that didn’t.
To prove this, they will have to show that you failed to do one or more of the ‘requirements’ set out in the PSR’s guidance under paragraph 1.3.
If your bank or payment service provider does decide to reimburse you it may deduct an excess of up to £100 for each scam claim.
If the rules don’t apply to the payments you’ve made – or you’ve lost more than £85,000 – we’ll still look at your case. We’ll investigate whether your bank or PSP should have done more to prevent you from falling victim to a scam.
Read more about these rules on the Payment Systems Regulator's website.
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Most high street banks have signed up to a voluntary scheme, called the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM) Code. The Lending Standards Board has a list of financial services firms who have signed up to the CRM Code.
If the CRM Code covers a payment you – or your business – made to a fraudster, the bank involved will usually reimburse you. There are some exceptions, for example, if you:
- didn't pay attention to effective warnings
- had reason to suspect you were falling victim to a scam
It’s easy to think you should have spotted the scam, once you’ve discovered you were scammed. But the Code applies to what you thought at the time, not what you realised afterwards.
You can find out more about CRM Code on the Lending Standard Board’s website.
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We’ll consider whether your bank – or payment service provider – did enough to:
- prevent you falling victim to fraud or
- get your money back
We’ll look at whether they should have spotted what might have looked like suspicious payments. And if they did, we’ll want to know what they did to warn you that your payments might be part of a scam.
We’ll also want to understand:
- how the scam unfolded and what the scammer told you
- what steps the bank or payment service provider took to try and recover your money
- and, in some cases, the part played by any other firms that were involved in the scam – for example, any other of your account providers
If we find that the business could, and should, have prevented you from falling victim to a scam, we may ask them to reimburse you – in full or in part.
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We can also look into complaints about the bank or payment service provider that received your money. If you ask us to look into a complaint like this, we’ll consider:
- what steps that business took to recover your money once it was made aware of the scam
- whether it should have had any concerns about its customer’s account
We'll tell you whether we believe you've been treated unfairly and explain how we reached our decision.
If we think your bank or payment services provider should have reimbursed you – or done more to prevent the scam – we’ll tell them to put things right.
We may also tell them to pay you compensation for any distress or inconvenience you have suffered.
Case studies
How we helped with a complaint about an intercepted invoice scam
Fraud and scams
Consumer contacts us to complain after a cryptocurrency investment scam
Fraud and scams
Where to go for help
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.
