Will My Bank Refund Scam Money? UK APP Fraud Rules

If a scammer persuaded you to send money by bank transfer, your bank may be required to reimburse you under the UK’s authorised push payment fraud rules.

For qualifying payments made on or after 7 October 2024, reimbursement is now the starting point rather than something banks can offer only at their discretion. There are limits and exceptions, but authorising the payment yourself does not automatically mean you have lost the right to get your money back.

If the payment has only just happened, contact your bank immediately. Use the number inside your banking app, on the back of your card or on the bank’s official website. Do not use a number supplied by the person who contacted you.

Quick version

You may be entitled to reimbursement if you were tricked into sending money from one UK account to another using Faster Payments or CHAPS.

Report the scam to your bank as soon as possible. The formal deadline is normally 13 months from the final payment, but acting quickly gives the bank a better chance of recovering the money.

Eligible claims should usually be resolved within five business days, although a bank can take up to 35 business days where it needs more information.

The mandatory reimbursement limit is £85,000 per claim. A bank may deduct an excess of up to £100, although this does not apply in certain cases involving vulnerable customers.

What is an authorised push payment scam?

An authorised push payment scam, usually shortened to APP scam, happens when you are deceived into instructing your bank to send money to a fraudster.

The payment is described as “authorised” because you completed or approved it. What you did not authorise was being lied to about where the money was going or what it would be used for.

APP scams can include:

• A criminal pretending to be your bank, the police, HMRC or another trusted organisation
• An investment opportunity that does not really exist
• A romance scam
• A fake invoice or altered payment details
• Someone impersonating a family member who urgently needs money
• A purchase scam involving goods that were never intended to be supplied
• A conveyancing or house-deposit scam
• A job, loan or advance-fee scam

The Payment Systems Regulator says all types of APP scam can potentially be covered, provided the payment and claim meet the reimbursement rules.

What should you do immediately after sending the money?

Speed matters. A reimbursement claim can still be valid later, but the sooner the bank knows, the better its chance of freezing or recalling the payment before the money is moved again.

1. Contact your bank’s fraud team

Tell the bank clearly:

“I need to report an authorised push payment scam. I was deceived into sending this money and did not know I was paying a fraudster.”

Ask the bank to:

• Attempt to stop or recall the payment
• Contact the receiving bank
• Open a formal APP scam claim
• Secure your account against further activity
• Check for new payees, devices, logins or account changes
• Give you a claim or reference number
• Confirm what evidence it needs from you

If you bank with more than one provider and moved money between accounts as part of the scam, contact every provider involved.

2. Save the evidence

Keep copies of:

• Messages, emails and social-media conversations
• Phone numbers and account names
• Website addresses and online profiles
• Payment confirmations and transaction references
• The account details you paid
• Any documents, adverts or invoices you were shown
• Warnings displayed by your bank
• A timeline of what happened

Do not delete embarrassing or confusing parts of the conversation. They may help show how the scam worked and why it appeared convincing at the time.

3. Stop all further contact

Do not send another payment, even if the person claims it is needed to release your money, pay a tax charge or complete a refund.

Be particularly wary of anyone who later offers to recover the lost money for an upfront fee. Recovery scams often target people who have already been defrauded.

4. Report the crime

If you live in England, Wales or Northern Ireland, report the scam through Report Fraud, which replaced Action Fraud in December 2025. You can report online or call 0300 123 2040.

If you live in Scotland, report it to Police Scotland online or by calling 101.

Your bank may also ask for permission to report the details to the police on your behalf.

Need help with the immediate practical steps?

The Relearning Money scam emergency playbook has separate checklists for bank transfers, shared security codes, suspicious links and remote-access scams.

Which scam payments are covered?

The mandatory rules apply to qualifying payments made on or after 7 October 2024.

The protections cover individuals, micro-enterprises and qualifying charities with annual income below £1 million. They apply to most banks, building societies, payment firms and electronic-money providers, although some types of institution are excluded.

If your payment falls outside the mandatory scheme, do not assume that you have no case. Your provider may still have obligations under other rules, codes or general standards of fair treatment. The Financial Ombudsman can also examine whether a firm should have recognised the risk and done more to prevent the loss.

Scam or civil dispute: why the difference matters

Not every failed purchase is legally treated as a scam.

Suppose you pay a real builder who begins the work, but you later disagree about the quality. That is likely to be a civil dispute.

If someone poses as a builder, takes deposits from several people and never intended to carry out any work, that may be a scam.

The important question is not simply whether you received what you paid for. It is whether there was dishonest intent when the payment was obtained.

If the bank describes your case as a civil dispute, ask it to explain what evidence led to that conclusion. Provide anything showing that the recipient used a false identity, made deliberately false claims, disappeared immediately, copied another business or targeted multiple victims.

How much can your bank refund?

The mandatory reimbursement limit is currently £85,000 per APP scam claim.

That limit applies to the whole claim, not separately to every payment. If you sent six payments as part of one scam, they would normally be considered together.

A bank may choose to reimburse more than £85,000, but it is not required to do so under the standard reimbursement rules.

Banks can also apply an excess of up to £100 per claim. Some providers charge less or do not apply an excess at all.

This means that if your eligible loss is £2,000 and your bank uses the full excess, you might receive £1,900. If your loss is less than £100, a bank applying the full excess might make no reimbursement under the scheme.

The excess cannot be applied where the relevant vulnerability rules are met.

How long does reimbursement take?

Most eligible claims should be resolved within five business days.

A bank can pause that period while it gathers information it reasonably needs, sometimes called “stopping the clock”. Even where this happens, it should reach an outcome within 35 business days.

According to the regulator’s latest reimbursement data, 88% of the money lost in reimbursable APP scam claims was returned between 7 October 2024 and 31 March 2026. Eighty-two per cent of claims were closed within five business days and 98% within 35 business days.

These figures only cover claims that fell within the rules. They do not mean that 88% of every reported scam loss was refunded.

Can the bank refuse to reimburse you?

A bank can reject a claim if the payment falls outside the scheme or if it decides that the case does not meet the definition of an APP scam.

It may also refuse reimbursement if it can show that:

• You were involved in the fraud
• You made a dishonest or fraudulent claim
• The payment was made for an unlawful purpose
• You acted with gross negligence in failing to meet the required standard of caution

“Gross negligence” is deliberately a high bar. It means something significantly more serious than ordinary carelessness, trusting the wrong person or making a decision that looks unwise with hindsight.

The bank should consider whether you:

• Paid proper attention to a specific scam warning from the bank or another competent authority
• Reported the scam promptly after becoming aware of it
• Responded to reasonable requests for information
• Reported the matter to the police or allowed the bank to report it

Failing one of these tests does not automatically prove gross negligence. The bank must consider the circumstances of the scam and demonstrate why the exception applies.

The latest PSR data shows that only around 2% to 3% of claims have generally been rejected for insufficient consumer caution. That is a useful reminder that the exception is meant for a small minority of cases, not as a routine reason to blame people who have been deceived.

What if you ignored a warning from your bank?

Ignoring a warning does not automatically end your claim.

Banks display many different messages during payments. Some are general reminders, while others identify a specific and serious risk. A vague message such as “scammers may ask you to transfer money” is not necessarily the same as a tailored warning explaining why the particular payment appears suspicious.

The bank should consider:

• How clear and specific the warning was
• Whether it identified the type of scam taking place
• Whether the warning appeared early enough to be useful
• How the scammer had prepared you to dismiss it
• Whether pressure, fear or manipulation affected your response
• Whether any vulnerability affected your ability to understand or act on the warning

If your claim is rejected because you continued after a warning, ask the bank for the exact wording and timing of that warning and an explanation of why it believes your response amounted to gross negligence.

What counts as vulnerability?

A vulnerable customer is broadly someone whose personal circumstances make them particularly susceptible to harm.

This can involve health problems, bereavement, mental-health difficulties, cognitive or communication needs, severe financial pressure, low financial capability or a major disruptive life event. However, having a diagnosis or difficult circumstance does not automatically settle the question.

For the APP rules, the relevant issue is whether the vulnerability materially affected your ability to protect yourself from that particular scam.

For example, did it affect your:

• Judgement or ability to assess risk?
• Understanding of the bank’s warnings?
• Ability to process information?
• Confidence in questioning someone who claimed to be in authority?
• Ability to recognise manipulation or act quickly afterwards?

Tell the bank about any relevant circumstances and explain the practical effect they had. You do not have to reduce the experience to a label.

Where the vulnerability conditions are met, the bank cannot apply the consumer-caution exception or deduct the claim excess.

What if you moved the money through another account or cryptocurrency platform?

Multi-stage scams can be more complicated.

A fraudster might tell you to transfer money from your main bank to another account in your own name, perhaps with a payment app, investment platform or cryptocurrency exchange. You may then be instructed to send it onwards or convert it into cryptocurrency.

A transfer into an account or wallet that you control is not itself normally treated in the same way as a payment directly to a fraudster. However, that does not necessarily end the matter. Another payment within the chain may fall within the rules, and the Financial Ombudsman can examine whether any provider involved should have identified the scam and intervened.

Report the entire sequence to every bank or payment firm involved. Do not describe only the final cryptocurrency transaction. Provide a timeline showing how the scammer directed each stage.

What if the payment was made before 7 October 2024?

The mandatory reimbursement scheme does not apply to payments made before 7 October 2024.

However, you should still complain to the bank. Depending on the bank and the date, the older Contingent Reimbursement Model Code may apply. The Financial Ombudsman may also consider whether the bank should have recognised unusual activity, provided an effective warning or paused the payment.

The fact that a payment predates the new rules does not automatically mean the bank handled it fairly.

What can you do if the bank rejects your claim?

First, ask for the decision in writing. It should explain:

• Whether the bank accepts that a scam occurred
• Which part of the reimbursement rules it believes is not met
• Whether it considers the case a civil dispute
• Whether it is alleging gross negligence
• What evidence it relied on
• Whether it considered vulnerability
• How to make a formal complaint

If you disagree, make a formal complaint to the bank rather than continuing only through ordinary customer service.

You could write:

I am making a formal complaint about the rejection of my APP scam claim, reference [number]. I was deceived into making the payment and believe the claim falls within the APP reimbursement rules.

Please explain the precise basis for the rejection, the evidence relied upon and how you considered the circumstances of the scam, including any relevant vulnerability. I would also like copies or details of the warnings and interventions relied upon in reaching the decision.

Banks normally have 15 business days to respond to complaints involving fraud or payment services. If exceptional circumstances prevent a full response, they should explain the delay and provide a final response within 35 business days.

If you remain unhappy, or the bank does not reply in time, you can refer the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service. The service is free, and you do not need a solicitor or claims company.

You will normally have six months from the date of the bank’s final response to contact the Ombudsman.

For relevant complaints referred from 1 April 2026, the Ombudsman’s current maximum compulsory award is £455,000. This does not mean it will automatically award any loss above the scheme’s £85,000 limit. It will examine what happened, how the provider acted and what outcome is fair in the individual case.

Frequently asked questions

I approved the payment myself. Can I still get a refund?

Yes. That is precisely what makes it an authorised push payment scam. You approved the transaction, but only because a criminal deceived you about the recipient or purpose.

Are romance scams covered?

They can be. The length of the relationship or the fact that you trusted the person does not automatically disqualify the claim. The bank will look at whether you were deceived into sending money to a fraudster and whether the other scheme conditions are met.

Are investment scams covered?

Potentially. Direct UK bank transfers to a fraudulent investment may qualify. Cases involving transfers through accounts in your own name or cryptocurrency can be more complex, but should still be reported and considered.

What if the bank says I should have known?

That is not, by itself, a sufficient explanation. Ask whether the bank is formally alleging gross negligence, what evidence supports that conclusion and how it took account of the scammer’s manipulation and your circumstances.

Can I claim if I lost less than £100?

You can still report the scam and ask the bank to recover the payment. However, a bank may apply an excess of up to £100 to an eligible claim, unless the vulnerability rules prevent it from doing so.

Do I need a police report before contacting the bank?

No. Contact the bank immediately. You can then report the crime yourself or consent to the bank reporting it. Do not delay the first bank call while gathering every piece of evidence.

Can someone help me make the complaint?

Yes. A trusted relative, friend or support worker can help you organise the evidence or communicate with the bank. The Financial Ombudsman may also allow someone to act on your behalf. You do not need to pay a claims company.

The bit that matters

Sending the money yourself does not mean you consented to being defrauded.

The UK reimbursement rules recognise that APP scams work by manipulating people into authorising payments they would never have made if they had known the truth. Report the scam quickly, keep the evidence and ask the bank to assess it formally under the APP reimbursement rules.

If the bank refuses, ask for the precise reason in writing. A rejection is not necessarily the end of the process, and the Financial Ombudsman can independently review how the bank handled your case.

Last fact-checked: 1 September 2026.

This article provides general educational information and does not constitute legal or financial advice. Rules and individual circumstances can change.