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Refundee recovers £30,000 from 6-year romance scam
Published September 2, 20260 min read
Amount lost
£34,000
Amount recovered
£30,000
Duration
9 months
Our client was the victim of a romance scam that spanned over the course of 6 years. Believing they were in a long term relationship, our client sent large amounts of money to the scammer for multiple made up reasons over a long period of time.
They initially were contacted on Facebook by an individual claiming to be Tom Cruise, who had a profile photo showing Tom Cruise. They told our client they wanted a real relationship that was not with another celebrity as they were tired of the publicity life.
They were very convincing and communicated with them over a long period of time, confessing their feelings and claiming ‘they never felt like this before’.
Once their trust had been gained, the scammer told our client about a project they had been working on and they needed their help to complete it. Once complete, they could enjoy the profits and life happily ever after.
The requests for money continued
Once the project had been completed, the scammer continued to request more money for multiple reasons, all with the same premise of once it is done they can enjoy life together.
The scammer manipulated our client into losing their life savings and the impact of this 6 year scam was devastating for our client.
Maria, one of our expert senior fraud investigators, spoke with our client and provided care and support in a period of distress.
They conducted a thorough review with the victim and provided clear guidance on the information we needed to submit a strong case for them.
Once all the evidence was gathered, we submitted a bespoke report to the bank outlining why our client should be refunded under UK banking regulations.
The bank rejected the initial complaint stating that the client authorised the payment so there was nothing they could do.
We escalated the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, outlining why the bank should be liable to refund our client the money they lost.
The investigator requested further evidence to review the case, which we helped the client gather. After reviewing the case, the investigator upheld the client's case and instructed the bank to refund the £30,000 that our client lost, ending a 6-year romance scam that helped to get our client's life back on track.
Summary
Someone posing as Tom Cruise on Facebook took our client's life savings over six years of made-up reasons and promises. The bank rejected the complaint as authorised payments. We escalated to the Financial Ombudsman, which instructed the bank to refund £30,000.
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