Scams and Fraud

Fraud and scams are crimes where someone cheats someone else out of their money through theft or deception¹. That definition covers everything from a fake text about a parcel charge to a months-long campaign that persuades someone to move their pension savings into a worthless investment. The National Crime Agency lists the priority frauds affecting the UK as investment fraud, romance fraud, courier fraud and payment division fraud². The Financial Ombudsman Service sees thousands of complaints involving fraud and scams every year³.

The scale of the problem is not a sign that victims are careless. Scams are designed by people who work at them full time, and they work because they copy the things real organisations do: banks really do call customers, delivery companies really do text about parcels, and investment firms really do cold call. The FCA's ScamSmart campaign exists precisely to raise awareness of the tactics scammers use, so potential victims can spot fraud attempts before losing money⁴. Even events that are not scams themselves create openings: when a bank suffers an IT outage, fraudsters have used it to trick people into sharing their bank details, for example by pretending to call from the bank and offering to help⁵.

This guide covers how the main scams work, who is being targeted, the warning signs, what to do in the first hours after realising you have been scammed, where to report it, and the rules on getting your money back from your bank and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

How scams work and why anyone can be caught out

Every scam, however elaborate, rests on the same foundation: getting a person to trust the fraudster, or to act before they have time to think. The fraudster supplies a reason to act now, a channel that looks official, and a story that explains why the normal safeguards do not apply. A caller who says your account is under attack and money must be moved to a "safe account" supplies all three at once. The request itself is the tell: a real bank never asks you to move money elsewhere to keep it safe, a rule covered in more detail in would a bank ever ask you to move money to a safe account?.

Two features make modern scams hard to catch. First, they arrive through channels people already trust: text messages that appear in the same thread as genuine bank alerts, adverts on social media, profiles on dating sites. Romance fraud typically involves criminals creating fake profiles on dating sites and social media². Second, they exploit moments when attention is elsewhere. During a bank outage, people are anxious and expecting contact from their bank, which is exactly when fraudsters strike with offers of help⁵.

The other reason anyone can be caught out is that scams are not one event but a process. The ombudsman's casework shows scammers often build a relationship or a plausible story over weeks before any money changes hands. By the time the payment is requested, the victim is not making a fresh decision about a stranger; they are acting on what feels like an established relationship. That is why the advice to pause, and to check independently, is not a platitude but the single most reliable defence. The national Take Five and Stop! Think Fraud campaigns exist to make that pause a habit.

Romance, pension and investment scams: who is being targeted

The National Crime Agency identifies investment fraud and romance fraud as two of the four priority frauds impacting the UK, alongside courier fraud and payment division fraud². These are not random: each targets a particular moment in a person's life when a convincing offer lands hardest.

Romance scams build a relationship before asking for money. The Money and Pensions Service lists the most common signs: a reluctance to meet up in person, talk on the phone, or video chat; asking for financial help early in the relationship; and an extremely attractive dating profile, with very appealing photos and an impressive career¹¹. The request, when it comes, is framed as an emergency or an investment opportunity, and often the victim is encouraged to invest rather than simply give money away, which is the pattern known as pig butchering.

Pension scams exploit the freedom people have had since 2015 to access their pension savings. The Pensions Regulator defines a pension scam as the marketing of products and arrangements, and attempts by a scammer to release funds from an HMRC-registered pension scheme, to persuade individuals over the normal minimum pension age to flexibly access their pension savings in order to invest in inappropriate investments, or to persuade individuals to transfer their pension savings in order to invest in inappropriate investments, where the scammer has misled the individual about the nature of, or risks attached to, the purported investment, or their appropriateness for that individual investor¹². In plain terms: someone convinces a saver to move pension money into something that suits the scammer, not the saver. nidirect, the Northern Ireland government service, reports that pension scams are on the increase¹³.

The regulator's own warnings give the warning signs in three words: unexpected offers, promises of early access to pensions, or guaranteed high returns¹⁴. Behind the scenes, the industry is being warned too. The Pensions Regulator issued a scam alert to more than 35,000 pension industry professionals, in collaboration with the City of London Police⁶, and an earlier alert to trustees and administrators covered unauthorised access to pension scheme members' accounts using hacking and impersonation techniques¹⁵. The regulator works on this through the Pension Scams Action Group¹⁶, and its code of practice tells governing bodies to be aware of the warning signs of a scam and to consider whether any are present when dealing with member requests to transfer or take their benefits¹⁶. Common features of pension scams include attempts to gather information for future scams, false or unrealistic promises, and acting without the consent of a pension saver⁴.

Investment scams follow the same shape with a different hook: a guaranteed or exceptional return, usually with pressure to invest before an "opportunity" closes. The dedicated pages on Ponzi schemes, clone firms and recovery room scams cover the main variants, including the second wave in which fraudsters contact previous victims offering to recover their lost money for a fee.

Warning signs of a scam

Several official checklists converge on the same signals. FSCS lists common warning signs as inaccurate spelling and wording; a sense of urgency to act quickly; asking for bank details or passwords and being told not to tell anyone; and an unfamiliar email address¹⁷. The government's own scam checklist says it could be a scam if it pressures you into making a decision; sets a short deadline; is threatening; is unexpected; asks for personal information like bank details; tells you to transfer money; says you have to pay to apply for or get a relief; says you have unclaimed credits; or offers a discount, refund, rebate or grant¹⁸.

Some scams have their own specific tells. In romance fraud, the tell is a relationship that never quite reaches a video call¹¹. In pension scams, it is an offer of early access or a guaranteed return¹⁴.

The single most useful habit is to break the channel. If someone contacts you, do not reply on the channel they used. Look up the organisation's number or website yourself, and check the request independently. The page on how to check your bank is really contacting you covers this step by step, and forwarding suspicious texts to 7726 gets the message to your phone provider's reporting service.

Check a firm is authorised before you pay

Before paying a firm, lending it money, or accepting an investment or pension "opportunity", check that the firm is authorised. The FCA's Firm Checker is a tool to help consumers check whether financial services firms are authorised and have permission to sell products and services¹⁹. The ombudsman gives the same advice for anyone considering an investment, pension opportunity, loan or other financial service: use the Firm Checker to confirm the firm is authorised and help avoid scams¹.

FSCS breaks the check into two steps. First, check your provider is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority. Second, find out whether the particular activity the authorised firm is carrying out for you is regulated by the Prudential Regulation Authority or the FCA²⁰. The second step matters because authorisation is not a blanket: a firm can be authorised for one activity and not another, and protection depends on the activity. You can check this on the FCA register²¹. The page on how to check a firm is authorised on the Financial Services Register walks through the search.

Two traps catch people who do check. The first is the clone firm: fraudsters copy the name, website and registration number of a genuine authorised firm, so the register entry you find is real but the person you are dealing with is not. The page on clone firms explains how to tell them apart, and the FCA Warning List and ScamSmart page covers the FCA's list of firms it believes are scamming people. The second trap is using the contact details the scammer gave you. MoneyHelper's advice on advance-fee fraud is to always check the company or organisation contacting you is legitimate by searching for it on Companies House and using the contact details listed there, not the ones provided in the message²².

What to do straight away if you have been scammed

Speed matters more than anything else in the first hour, because it affects whether a payment can still be recalled and whether the bank's own deadlines work in your favour. The ombudsman sets out the immediate steps: contact your bank or payment services provider immediately; contact the police on 101; report the scam to Report Fraud; and keep records of all contact and correspondence between you and the scammer²³.

In practice, the order is:

1. Contact your bank using the number on your card, your statement, or its official app. Ask it to try to recall the payment and to freeze or secure your accounts. If you gave away card details, see what to do if you gave your card details to a fraudster.
2. Change passwords for your email and bank accounts, from a device you trust, and turn on two-factor authentication if it is not already on.
3. Contact the police on 101, or 999 if there is an immediate threat²³.
4. Report the scam to Report Fraud, the national reporting centre²³.
5. Keep everything: screenshots, emails, texts, payment references, and a note of every call, with dates and what was said²³.

If your card, online bank account or cheque book have been stolen or hacked, speak to your bank or building society straight away²⁴. If you clicked a link or entered details on a fake site, the page on what to do after clicking a phishing link covers the follow-up, and identity theft covers the longer job of protecting yourself if the scammer has enough of your details to impersonate you.

Report Fraud: the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime

Report Fraud is the UK's national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime¹. It replaced Action Fraud in December 2025⁶, and it is hosted by the City of London Police on behalf of policing². Reporting there creates the national police record of the fraud: it does not itself get your money back, but it matters for the investigation of fraud as a whole and it supports the paper trail behind your claim with your bank.

Other bodies route people there too. The Information Commissioner's Office, which handles nuisance calls and texts, refers complaints about fraud and scams to Report Fraud²⁵. The Payment Systems Regulator's guidance for scam victims likewise points to the national reporting centre²⁶. The full page on where to report a scam in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland covers the routes, including the differences in how each nation's police services handle a report.

A report to Report Fraud is separate from your complaint to your bank. The bank decides whether to reimburse you under the payment rules; the police decide whether to investigate the fraudster. Doing one does not do the other, so a victim normally needs to do both.

Getting your money back from your bank

Whether you can get your money back depends mainly on how the money left your account. The ombudsman's banking and payments work covers current accounts, savings accounts, direct debits, money transfers, electronic payment platforms, cheques and banker's drafts, and complaints about issues such as account closures, disputed transactions, IT failures and problems with switching services²⁷. If the ombudsman thinks the business treated you unfairly, it can tell the business to put you back where you would have been if it had not made a mistake, and possibly to make an award for distress and inconvenience²⁷.

The broad split is between payments you authorised and payments you did not:

• Authorised push payment (APP) scams: you were tricked into making the payment yourself, for example by an invoice with changed bank details or a fake bank caller. Since October 2024, mandatory reimbursement rules apply, and the maximum level of mandatory reimbursement is £415,000 per single APP scam case, a level that applies to all consumers⁹. The pages on how bank transfer refunds work, claiming a refund from your bank and the maximum refund cover the detail.
• Unauthorised payments: someone used your card or account details without your knowledge. Different rules apply, covered below.
• Card payments: protection differs between credit and debit cards, and the comparison pages on credit card versus debit card protection and bank transfer versus card payments set the differences side by side.

If you are unhappy with how your bank assessed an APP scam claim under the Payment Systems Regulator's policy, you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service⁹. The regulator's policy statement of December 2023 set the mandatory reimbursement framework that banks must follow⁹.

Unauthorised payments and the gross negligence test

When a scam involves a payment you did not authorise, the ombudsman sorts these cases into three categories: scams involving stolen details, unauthorised payments that you have not made, and identity theft²³. The refund rules for unauthorised transactions are generally stronger than for authorised ones, because the law puts the burden on the payment provider to show the payment was genuinely authorised.

The main battleground is what the bank calls gross negligence: the argument that you acted with such a lack of care that it should not have to refund you. Banks have historically used this to refuse refunds where a customer shared a passcode or one-time passcode with a fraudster. The ombudsman looks at these cases individually, and its guidance on scams involving unauthorised payments and identity theft is the reference point for what it expects of banks²³. The narrow page on gross negligence: when a bank can refuse a scam refund covers the test, and authorised and unauthorised payments explains how refund rights differ between the two.

The ombudsman's reach also extends beyond the reimbursement rules. Where you were tricked into making another type of payment where reimbursement rules do not apply, such as me-to-me scams, card payments to genuine merchants, overseas payments and cash withdrawals handed to a scammer, the ombudsman states it can still help²⁸. That matters for payments that fall outside the mandatory APP scheme, including international transfers and crypto purchases.

Complaining to your bank or payment provider: 15 days for scams, eight weeks for other matters

If your bank refuses a refund or you are unhappy with its handling, the next step is a formal complaint, and the deadlines are tighter for scams than for most other complaints. A business has only 15 days to consider complaints about fraud and scams, payment services such as bank transfers or direct debits, and electronic money, for example online money transfers, Apple Pay or travel money cards⁷. For complaints about anything else, it has eight weeks²⁹. The ombudsman's guidance on fraud markers repeats the same structure: complain to the company involved first, and if it does not send a final response within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with the response, complain to the ombudsman⁸.

A complaint does not need a special form. Write to the bank stating what happened, what you lost, what you want it to do, and include your evidence: payment references, screenshots, the dates of calls. Keep a copy. The page on how to complain to your bank about a scam refund gives a template approach.

If the bank misses its deadline, that is not the end of the complaint; it is the trigger to escalate. Note the date you first complained, because the 15-day clock for a scam complaint starts then⁷.

Taking a scam complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service

The Financial Ombudsman Service is free and easy to use³¹. Once you have a final response, you need to complain to the ombudsman within six months of the date on that response⁷.

The process itself is straightforward: fill in the complaint form³¹. The ombudsman also publishes guidance for people considering using AI to help complete the form: avoid entering personal information you would not want shared, such as health or banking information; only use AI to help you organise information or put it clearly; and check the resulting text carefully⁷.

You do not need to pay anyone to represent you, for example a lawyer or a claims management company⁷. Claims management companies can help you make certain types of claims against financial services providers for a fee³², but the same complaint route is open to you directly and free of charge. If you do have a complaint about a claims company, ask it for a copy of its complaints procedure or check its website, contact it with your complaint so it has a chance to put things right, and keep a record³².

The ombudsman handles large volumes of this work: it received 53,600 new complaints between April and June 2026, including 8,900 new complaints about current accounts³³. Its decisions are based on relevant law and regulations, the regulator's rules, guidance and standards, industry codes of practice and, where appropriate, good industry practice³¹. How long an investigation takes depends on what the complaint is about, how complex it is, and how quickly all the information needed can be obtained¹. The narrow page on taking a refused scam refund to the ombudsman covers the practical detail.

What the ombudsman can award: up to £430,000

The ombudsman's award limits depend on when the complaint is referred and when the act or omission by the firm occurred:

For most scam complaints today, the relevant limit is £430,000¹⁰. The ombudsman can recommend the business pay more if it thinks it is fair, but the business does not have to accept that recommendation¹⁰.

Interest can be added. For complaints referred from 1 January 2026, the ombudsman typically asks financial businesses to calculate interest using a time-weighted average of the Bank of England base rate plus one percentage point; for complaints referred before that date, it typically asked for a rate of 8% simple a year¹⁰. Where interest is awarded for being deprived of money because the business delayed payment, that interest payment can be awarded on top of the limit¹⁰. If a final decision is not paid by the deadline, which is usually 28 calendar days from the date the ombudsman informs the business that you have accepted the final decision, the interest rate for late payment is usually 8% simple a year¹⁰. In some cases the law requires the business to deduct income tax at the basic rate from any compensation it pays you, whether or not you are a taxpayer¹⁰.

Separately, the mandatory reimbursement level for a single authorised push payment scam case is £415,000, a level that applies to all consumers⁹. The two figures do different jobs: the £415,000 cap is what a bank can be required to reimburse under the payment rules, while the ombudsman's award limit is what it can tell a business to pay when it upholds a complaint.

A final decision binds the business if you accept it, but not you. If you do not want to accept the ombudsman's decision, you can still go to court³⁴. Neither side can appeal an ombudsman's final decision to another ombudsman or to court just because they disagree with it³⁰. If the ombudsman does not hear from you within the specified timeframe, in most cases you are treated as having rejected the decision and it is not binding on the business³⁰.

Changes coming to scam refund rules

The scam refund rules are not fixed. The Payment Systems Regulator's response to the Which? super-complaint on authorised push payment scams set out possible changes to legislation or regulation, to change the incentives on banks and payment system operators, and to ensure that more is done to manage the risks from these types of scams and to protect consumers from harm³⁵. The regulator's ongoing work on APP scams is the place those changes take shape³⁶.

The direction of travel matters for consumers in two ways. First, the rules on when a bank must reimburse an APP scam victim, including the consumer standard of caution that decides when a refund can be refused, are under review, so a refusal that stands today may be judged differently once revised rules are confirmed. Second, the data the regulator publishes on how firms reimburse victims is itself intended to change the incentives, by making outcomes visible. The page on FSCS protection or APP reimbursement explains how the two safety nets fit together today, and the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code page covers the voluntary scheme that applied before October 2024.

Where to get help

Free, impartial help is available at every stage, and none of it requires a paid representative.

• Before you pay: the FCA's Firm Checker and ScamSmart tools help you check a firm and avoid pension scams¹⁹. MoneyHelper, the government-backed money guidance service, lists the types of scam and how each works²².
• In the first hour: your bank, the police on 101, and Report Fraud²³. The page on first steps for victims collects the immediate actions in one place.
• If you struggle to access banking afterwards: MoneyHelper explains basic bank accounts, which can be an option if a scam has left you without an account²⁹.
• If your complaint is refused: the Financial Ombudsman Service, free of charge³¹. The Information Commissioner's Office handles nuisance calls and texts and can point you to the right reporting route²⁵.
• If someone else has been targeted: the page on helping an older relative or someone else who has been targeted covers how to support a victim without taking over their decisions.
• If you are in debt after a scam: the debt guide sets out where free debt advice is available.

One warning belongs here rather than anywhere else. After a scam, victims are often contacted again by firms offering to recover the lost money for a fee. This is the recovery room pattern, and the page on whether to pay a firm to recover money lost to a scam explains why the free routes above are the ones that exist.