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£68,000 recovered for invoice scam victim
Published September 2, 20260 min read
Amount lost
£120,000
Amount recovered
£68,000
Duration
1 year
Our client was considering investing and was speaking to their Financial Advisor about the possibility of investing some funds.
They initially spoke over the phone and then communicated via email. During the communication process with their Financial Advisor, their email was hacked. The scammers gathered details of their upcoming investment and saw an opportunity. They impersonated their Financial Advisor and used a similar email address; the only difference was one letter, making it believable as our client was already communicating with the Financial Advisor.
Unfortunately, the client, believing this was their Financial Advisor's account, sent the funds to the scammers unknowingly. After sending the money, they did not hear anything further and became worried, so they called the legitimate Financial Advisor. The advisor confirmed that they had not received the payment and informed them that they had been the victim of a scam.
How Refundee built the case for recovery
- Step 1 - Investigation: Our team conducted a thorough investigation to establish the fraudulent nature of the case, gathering evidence to build a strong case
- Step 2 - Utilising UK banking regulations, we constructed detailed arguments for why the bank should bear liability for the losses.
- Step 3 - Financial Ombudsman escalation: We escalated the case to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), presenting our evidence and regulatory arguments to make the case for reimbursement.
- Step 4 - Recovery: £68,000 recovered for our client
Summary
Scammers hacked the email thread between our client and their financial advisor, then sent payment details from an address one letter different. £120,000 went to the fraudsters. We escalated to the Financial Ombudsman and recovered £68,000.
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