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Refundee recovers £26,000 for client who fell victim to a Richard Branson impersonation scam
Published September 10, 20260 min read
Amount lost
£32,000
Amount recovered
£26,000
Duration
12 months
Our client saw an advert online showing a video of an impersonator of Richard Branson talking about learning how to trade and how rich you can become from trading.
The video included a link to a form where our client registered their details to find out more about the scheme.
They then received a call from someone claiming to be a financial advisor. They stated that they could earn high returns through trading and that they could teach them how to do so.
From there, they were persuaded to make small deposits, which they saw increase in profits. The financial advisor persuaded them to invest further, and they continued to see their investments grow on the platform.
After a few large deposits, our client wanted to withdraw. The scammers then asked for withdrawal fees in order to facilitate the withdrawal. Our client did not have any further money to pay the fees, and when they spoke to a friend, they were told that they had unfortunately been the victim of a scam.
How Refundee recovered the money
- Step 1 - Investigation & support: Our team provided support to our client in a stressful situation. They conducted a thorough investigation to establish what happened, gathering necessary evidence for the claim.
- Step 2 - Utilising UK banking regulations for Authorised Push Payment Fraud, we constructed detailed arguments for why the bank should bear liability for the loss.
- 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 full reimbursement.
Result: £26,000 recovered for our client
Summary
An online advert showing a Richard Branson impersonator promised to teach our client how to trade. After several deposits that appeared to grow, the scammers demanded withdrawal fees our client could not pay. We escalated to the Financial Ombudsman and recovered £26,000 of the £32,000 lost.
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