Taking a refused scam refund to the Financial Ombudsman

If your bank has refused to refund money you lost to a scam, you do not have to accept its answer. The Financial Ombudsman Service is a free, independent body that looks at complaints about financial businesses in the UK and can tell a bank to give you your money back, with interest. It can help individual or joint consumers of a financial business that provides services or products in the UK, regardless of nationality or where they live¹.

The process starts with a complaint to the business itself. Only once that has failed, or eight weeks have passed without a final response, can the ombudsman step in². The ombudsman covers banking and payment services including current accounts, savings accounts, direct debits, money transfers and electronic payment platforms, and handles complaints about issues such as disputed transactions³. Scam cases, including authorised push payment fraud and unauthorised payments and identity theft, fall squarely within what it deals with⁴.

Complain to your bank first: the eight-week rule

The ombudsman will not look at your case until you have complained to the business involved. Its guidance is consistent on this: make a formal complaint to the company first, and if it does not send you a final response letter within eight weeks, or you are unhappy with the response, you can bring the complaint to the ombudsman². The same rule appears across its scam and banking guidance⁴.

In practice this means contacting the bank's customer services and asking for your complaint to be treated formally, not just as a fraud report. Keep a note of when you complained, because the eight-week clock runs from then. The bank's final response letter should tell you how to contact the ombudsman, and the date on that letter matters: you have six months from it to refer your complaint⁵. If the bank upholds its refusal, that letter is the trigger for the next step. If it simply goes silent, you do not have to wait forever: once eight weeks have passed, you can refer the case anyway².

How to refer a refused refund to the Financial Ombudsman

Referring a complaint is free⁶. The ombudsman's own guidance says bringing a complaint is straightforward and will not cost you anything, and you usually have the right to refer your complaint to the relevant ombudsman service for free¹⁰. You fill in the ombudsman's complaint form, which asks what happened, what the bank said and what you want it to do. An online complaint checker on its website answers a few questions and tells you whether it thinks it can help and what to do next⁹.

If you are considering using AI to help complete the form, the ombudsman asks you to read its guidelines first: avoid entering personal information you would not want shared, such as health or banking information, use AI only to help organise information or put it clearly, and check the resulting text carefully⁵. You do not need a claims management company or lawyer; the service is designed for consumers to use directly⁶.

How the ombudsman decides whether money is refunded

The ombudsman investigates the complaint itself, not just the bank's paperwork. When it has finished investigating, it tells you whether it thinks the business treated you fairly or not, and explains how it reached its decision¹³. In scam cases it provides dispute resolution between banks and customers, considering the individual circumstances of the complaint, including decisions made under the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code¹⁴. The Payment Systems Regulator, which oversees push payment scam reimbursement, likewise directs unhappy scam victims to the ombudsman¹⁵.

A published case study shows the approach in action. A consumer named Duncan paid for a vehicle and was scammed; the ombudsman felt he had a reasonable basis for believing the purchase to be legitimate, and asked the bank to refund the rest of his money¹⁶. That is the core question: whether, on the facts, the bank's refusal was fair. The ombudsman can require a party to provide specified information or documents where it considers this necessary to determine the complaint¹⁷, so a bank cannot simply withhold its reasoning.

What you can get: awards up to £455,000 plus interest

If the ombudsman upholds your complaint, it aims to put you back in the position you were in before the loss. It can tell the business to refund the money and pay interest, and it may also tell it to pay compensation for any distress or inconvenience you have suffered⁴. Awards for distress and inconvenience are up to £1,500⁸. In one worked example of redress, the total payment was £2,995, including interest of £555¹⁸.

The maximum award depends on when your complaint is referred and when the events occurred. For complaints referred on or after 1 April 2026 about acts or omissions on or after 1 April 2019, the limit is £455,000. Complaints referred from 1 April 2025 carry a £445,000 limit, and those referred from 1 April 2024 a £430,000 limit. For complaints about events before 1 April 2019, referred on or after 1 April 2026, the limit is £205,000⁷.

If the ombudsman rules against you

Neither side can appeal an ombudsman's final decision to another ombudsman, or to court, just because they disagree with it¹⁹. But the decision is only binding on the business if you accept it. If you do not accept it, you can still go to court²⁰. Court action is a different matter entirely: it carries costs risk and formal procedure, so anyone considering it should take advice first. If you do accept the decision, the bank must comply with it.

Where to get free help

The ombudsman itself offers a free, easy-to-use service and publishes its guidance in plain English, including an easy-read leaflet explaining that it can help if you have complained to a financial business and are not happy with the answer²¹. Before you refer a complaint, the pages on claiming a refund from your bank and how to complain to your bank about a scam refund explain the first stage, and authorised push payment reimbursement explains the refund rules the ombudsman will apply. If you lost more than £85,000, see what happens if you lose more than £85,000 to a bank transfer scam. Free, impartial money guidance is available from MoneyHelper, and the ombudsman's complaint checker is the quickest way to confirm it can take your case⁹.