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Refundee recovers £95,600 for safe account scam victim
Published September 2, 20260 min read
Amount lost
£95,600
Amount recovered
£95,600
Duration
18 months
Our client was contacted by someone claiming to be the police, and the scammers were able to spoof the police’s number to make this more legitimate. They claimed that their identity was connected to a serious crime and that they needed to move their money into a safe account to prove their innocence.
They claimed they needed to show they had money within their account in order to prove that they did not have the motivation to commit a crime. The second part of the transfer was claimed to be required for bail payment pending a trial.
The scammers provided photo evidence, and they knew many details about our client. They also provided genuine-looking documents that made the scam even more convincing.
Our client was very distressed by what was happening, and after speaking with family members, they became suspicious that this was a scam. One of the relatives visited the police station in person, which confirmed that, unfortunately, our client had been the victim of a scam.
How Refundee recovered the money
We spoke with the client at a very distressing time. They believed they were the victim of identity fraud and had been accused of committing a crime. When they realised they had been scammed and lost a large amount of money, they were understandably very upset.
We provided clear support and guidance to ensure the client felt at ease in what was a stressful situation. We conducted a thorough review and found that our client's bank should have done more to protect them from sending the money.
We submitted a bespoke report to the bank, outlining why they should be refunded. The bank rejected the claim, citing that our client authorised the payment and that there was nothing they could do.
We escalated this to an investigator at the Financial Ombudsman Service. While awaiting their review, we kept our client informed and updated on the next steps of the process.
The investigator at the FOS initially rejected the case; however, we appealed this decision, and the Ombudsman reviewed both sides of the case.
The result: a full refund of £95,600 returned to our client
Summary
Posing as the police from a spoofed number, scammers convinced our client their identity was tied to a crime and their money had to be moved to prove innocence. The bank and the FOS investigator both rejected the case. Our appeal to the Ombudsman secured a full £95,600 refund.
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