HSBC UK Bank Plc · DRN-6256679

The complaint Miss H complains that HSBC UK Bank Plc will not reimburse funds she lost to a scam. What happened Between September and October 2025 Miss H made several payments towards what she thought was a legitimate investment opportunity. The payments were made to an international money transfer provider before the funds were sent on to the scam platform. Our Investigator did not uphold the complaint. She found the payments were consistent with Miss H’s typical account activity and concluded that there was no obvious fraud indicators present. Miss H didn’t accept the Investigator’s conclusions, as such the complaint has been passed to me for a final decision. What I’ve decided – and why I’ve considered all the available evidence and arguments to decide what’s fair and reasonable in the circumstances of this complaint. I recognise that I have summarised this complaint in much less detail than has been provided. I want to reassure both parties that I have taken their submissions into consideration and if I haven’t mentioned something it isn’t because I’ve ignored it. I haven’t. Rather, I’ve focussed on setting out what is key to my decision. I have come to the same outcome as the Investigator and for similar reasons. I know this will be disappointing to Miss H, but I will explain why. Taking into consideration the relevant regulatory rules and guidance, codes of practice and good industry practice, HSBC should take steps to identify and where possible prevent sufficiently unusual or uncharacteristic payments to help protect its customers from financial harm resulting from fraud. Even so, I think it is important to highlight that there are many payments made by customers each day, and it is not reasonable to expect the bank to stop and check every payment instruction to try to prevent fraud or financial harm. There’s a balance to be struck in the extent it intervenes in payments to protect customers, without it causing unnecessary disruptions to legitimate payment instructions. When considering Miss H’s typical spending, I am not persuaded the payments would have appeared unusual or uncharacteristic and triggered HSBC’s fraud prevention systems. This is because, Miss H had a history of making higher value debits from her account. The disputed payments were not made in quick succession, which is commonly found in scams such as this, rather several days passed between the transactions. Although it was a new payee, I do not think that is reason enough for HSBC to interfere in the payment instruction. Ultimately, I do not find the payments would have appeared suspicious to the point of warranting intervention.

-- 1 of 2 --

I’m really sorry to hear Miss H had been in a severe accident and was in recovery at the time. However, I do not find there was sufficient information available that might have indicated to it that she was vulnerable and at greater risk of falling victim to a scam, or that it may need to amend or increase the level of support it offered. The payments consisted of an international payment and payments to a legitimate merchant and to an account in Miss H’s name, therefore I am not persuaded there were any realistic prospects of recovering the money she lost. I have thought carefully about all that’s happened. I appreciate that Miss H has been the victim of a cruel scam and is out of pocket as a result of it and I sympathise. But I cannot fairly or reasonably hold HSBC liable for the loss. My final decision For the reasons outlined above, my final decision is that I don’t uphold this complaint. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Miss H to accept or reject my decision before 27 April 2026. Oluwatobi Balogun Ombudsman

-- 2 of 2 --