TLW Client Video Testimonial:
Hear How Ms Doherty Secured Scam Claim Compensation with the Help of TLW Solicitors

In July 2022, Ms Doherty was contacted by text by a number claiming to be from her online bank, Revolut, advising that a transaction of over £7000 had been attempted from her account and instructing her to call the number in the message if she suspected fraud.

Doing as she was told, she was advised by the representative on the phone that her account was being used fraudulently and her money needed to be moved into a new ‘safe’ account. Ms Doherty then moved two amounts – £100 and £11,500, respectively – to the new account in her name. Once the transactions were complete, the individual on the other end of the phone hung up, and that’s when she realised she’d been scammed.

She immediately reported the scam to Revolut and was told she would not be able to receive a refund, at which point she raised a complaint with the bank. Revolut could only recover £20 of the total amount lost and told Ms Doherty that the bank had not viewed the transactions as suspicious – and so had not blocked them – as she had made similar-sized transactions from her account in the previous 12 months.

Unhappy with the response from Revolut, Ms Doherty took the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS).

The Financial Ombudsman Service is an independent, government-backed service responsible for investigating and resolving disputes between financial service providers – such as banks – and their customers.

Ms Doherty initially took the complaint to FOS herself, a process, she admits, that she had no experience with and found extremely challenging. In the video, she explains that she could find “no advice…as to how to proceed forward” with the application.

Ultimately, following her initial application, FOS found in favour of Revolut, stating that, as her account was less than a year old, Revolut would have difficulty ascertaining what was and was not ‘unusual activity’ on her account. At this point, Ms Doherty took to the internet to seek legal advice and found TLW Solicitors.

In the video, Alex Laws from TLW Solicitors explains how she and the team quickly got to work and requested Ms Doherty’s file from FOS to ascertain “exactly what had gone on to date and the possible reasons why her complaint had been rejected” as well as accessing further documentation from the client herself, such as her bank statements to understand if Revolut had taken any steps to warn her about the transactions as they happened.

Alex and the team then contacted FOS to inform them that TLW Solicitors would be taking over conduct of the file and to request an extension to the case. The appeal claim was submitted, including detailed information and factors that Ms Doherty was unaware she could include in her initial claim. The FOS investigator considered the whole case again and, with the benefit of the additional information, ultimately decided to uphold the complaint. The compensation was paid within 24 hours of the decision.

Ms Doherty was the victim of an impersonation scam, a type of Authorised Push Payment (APP) Fraud. In her case, the content of the message claiming to be from her bank, Revolut, was written to shock its recipient and make her act quickly and impulsively without thinking – which is, unfortunately, precisely what happened.

Banks in the UK have a responsibility to their customers to ensure that their money is protected from scams and frauds such as this. As industry experts, banks should have robust systems in place to monitor large or unusual transactions, delay payments, ask for more information, or block payments completely.

Victims can take their complaint to FOS where money has been lost due to a lack of these procedures, and banks refuse to compensate.

Whilst initially prepared to handle the FOS complaint on her own, she now urges anyone in a similar situation to consider legal support from the very beginning:

“Without Alex and TLW’s intervention with the appeal, I do not think I would have been successful in securing compensation for the scam.

Their knowledge of the financial regulations and important factors that I hadn’t even considered, such as my medical records, were crucial to bolstering the complaint and getting a successful outcome for the claim. The team are also fully familiar with similar cases that the FOS have dealt with, including the decisions that are made far earlier on in the process that are never published on the FOS website.

There is a reason that specialist legal professionals, such as Alex and her team, do what they do and do it so well. They thoroughly understand the ins-and-outs and challenges of these claims and know exactly what to do to get the best results. Thank you!”

Commenting on the FOS U-turn, Alex Laws said:

“There have been a number of similar FOS decisions, where banks have been shown lacking when it comes to their online fraud warnings and fraud prevention processes. Many banking customers, particularly those who are elderly or vulnerable, know far less about scams and financial fraud than the banks do. It is the bank’s responsibility to work hard to protect customers and their money.

The team and I are really pleased for Ms D, who will be refunded the money she lost in what was a sophisticated impersonation scam.”