Monzo Bank Ltd · DRN-6189691

The complaint Mr H complains that Monzo Bank Ltd hasn’t reimbursed him after he fell victim to a scam. Mr H is professionally represented in this complaint, but I’ll only refer to him throughout for clarity. What happened The facts here are well-known and not in dispute, so I’ll be brief in establishing the key details. Mr H became involved with persons claiming to be running an ‘investment academy’. He’d found this academy on social media and began discussing the supposed opportunity on WhatsApp. He didn’t know at the time, but he was liaising with scammers. Mr H was initially directed to trade some stocks and shares, seemingly with some success. But, over time, Mr H was encouraged to move to a different platform and to engage in different types of trading. He was sending money to cryptocurrency platforms and following the scammers instructions about what assets to buy. Whilst successes appeared to be repeated after the change of platform, Mr H began to experience failing trades and an inability to withdraw any money. It was then he realised he’d been caught up in a scam. Mr H reported what had happened to Monzo, seeking a refund of his losses. By this point, since the start of the scam, more than £35,000 had been lost (though not all of this was reported to Monzo at the time). Monzo considered Mr H’s claim but said it wouldn’t reimburse. This was because Mr H had funded his own cryptocurrency accounts and then lost the money from there. So it didn’t believe it had any responsibility for the loss. It also said it had questioned some of the payments made over the course of the scam. Mr H was unhappy with Monzo’s response and so brought his complaint to our service. It was considered by one of our investigators and she said the complaint ought not be upheld. She recognised that Monzo ought to have questioned the activity on Mr H’s account, given the size, frequency, and destination of the payments. She noted this presented an identifiable scam risk. But our investigator wasn’t persuaded intervention from Monzo would have prevented the scam. Instead, she thought it was more likely than not Mr H would have proceeded to make payments regardless of an intervention from Monzo. Mr H didn’t accept our investigator’s findings and so the complaint has been passed to me.

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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’m sorry to disappoint Mr H but I’m not upholding his complaint. This isn’t a decision I take lightly and I’m acutely aware of the substantial loss suffered here. I can’t imagine the upset and the difficulties this has caused Mr H. But, like our investigator, I’m not persuaded Monzo could have altered the course of events. I’ve already been in touch with Mr H’s representatives to explain the outcome and my findings. I’ll set out those key points again here: • Mr H was trading through the scam contacts for a couple of months before any likely point of intervention by Monzo might have come into play. During this time, he'd built trust and rapport; • That trust and rapport was built on the back of what appears to have been the genuine and successful trading of stocks on a legitimate platform. During that time, it appears there was no request for money from Mr H, and he appears to have generated returns, albeit I understand they may later have been lost. But I think this would have lent significant legitimacy to the parties he was dealing with, and I think it's evident from the chat that the suggestions and advice given was highly trusted by Mr H; • As things progressed, Mr H was rewarded with 'free' crypto credits. We know these were all part of the scam and almost certainly engineered to foster continued engagement and trust. But the evidence shows that, unfortunately, those credits did the job they were intended to. This isn't a standalone point but must be taken into account with the whole picture. And I'm persuaded the scammers here used various tools, the credits included, to build a position of trust that I don't consider would have been breached by questioning of a payment by Monzo; • Mr H had experience of trading in crypto. So it appears what he was being told by the scammers resonated with him; • That previous crypto experience, along with the events of the scam itself, meant Mr H had engaged with various banks (not just Monzo) with regard to payment blocks where crypto was involved. From reading the chats, it seems evident Mr H had already undertaken various steps to bypass those security features, including moving banks, accounts, payment destinations, and payment types. He also appears to have been willing to accept the advice of scammers in terms of bypassing such features and didn't question why a legitimate business would tell him to completely disguise the true purpose of his payments. In making these points I’ve agreed that Monzo ought to have questioned some of the payments made, and it ought to have talked to Mr H about what he was doing. It also ought to have provided warnings about cryptocurrency scams. But a failure here on Monzo’s part doesn’t automatically mean reimbursement is due. I also must consider whether such interventions would have made a difference; would they have prevented Mr H’s loss? And, for the reasons above, I’m not persuaded they would have and so I can’t say Monzo ought to have reimbursed Mr H. I gave the opportunity for a further response to the points I’ve set out above, and for Mr H to supply any new evidence, information, or argument. But none was provided. I did receive a response. But it was with the same position being maintained: that Monzo ought to have questioned payments and given warnings but failed to do so. I’ve explained here why that

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doesn’t lead to a positive outcome for Mr H. My final decision I don’t uphold this complaint against Monzo Bank Ltd. Under the rules of the Financial Ombudsman Service, I’m required to ask Mr H to accept or reject my decision before 21 April 2026. Ben Murray Ombudsman

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