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Authorised Push Payment Refund:

Legal Services For APP Fraud

Quick Guide

  • Cybercrime is growing rapidly, this includes Authorised Push Payment Fraud, where victims are persuaded to send money to scammers.
  • Banks have a duty to protect their customers from these scammers. In some cases, if you have lost out to an online Push Payment fraudster, then TSL can help claim compensation from the bank.
  • Our specialist team work on a no win no fee basis, you pay us nothing if your Authorised Push Payment Fraud claim is unsuccessful.

Have you lost money due to a bank transfer scam or fraud?

You may be entitled to compensation if your bank did not do enough to protect you.

Authorised Push Payment fraud (APP fraud), is a type of fraud in which victims are tricked into sending instantaneous money to scammers, sometimes using social engineering schemes incorporating impersonation. These authorised frauds may also be linked to romance scams, in which the victim is duped into paying money for relationships that do not exist, and investment scams, in which the victim is duped into sending money for investments that do not exist.

Scammers gain the victim’s confidence or appears to be someone they trust, such as a lawyer, accountant, friend, family member, romantic connection, or business associate, then uses manipulative techniques and deception to persuade the victim to send sums of money, often on an urgent and/or regular basis, from their bank account.

As the fraud victim believes the transfer is genuine and legitimate, the money is often lost before any alarm bells ring and the victim may be too embarrassed to do anything about it. These payments are usually made abroad, often making it impossible to trace or recover what has been lost.

APP fraud has been made much easier for cybercriminals by the increased use of real-time payment schemes, which means once money has been transferred out of an account, there is no going back once the victim realises they have been defrauded.

Meet Our Team

Kate Hobbs

Legal Director

Frequently asked questions

If criminal proceedings are taken and there is a successful conviction, then the Court can award compensation. However, it can sometimes be difficult to trace the fraudster, particularly if they are abroad, or they may no longer have any assets to pay any compensation.

Many victims are unaware that the banks from where the payments to the scammer are made, have a duty to apply due diligence when looking after their customers’ accounts. As well as having robust security checks and data protection measures, the banks should have processes in place to highlight and act on any ‘red flags’ such as vulnerable customers, regular and high-value payment transfers, or other unusual or out-of-character transactions activity.

If there is a dispute between a bank and a customer who has lost out to a scam, then a complaint can be made to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS). FOS will examine the circumstances of the fraud and the bank’s response. FOS will take into account that banks will be more familiar with the types of fraud than the customer, so they should do what they can to protect them including stopping suspicious transfers, freezing accounts or collaborating with other banks.

  • Romance Scams
    Romance scams have been highlighted in the Netflix documentary ‘The Tinder Swindler’ and often involve meeting through online dating apps and then using manipulation to build a romantic relationship and trust with the victim. This then develops into requests for money by bank transfer or cheque. It is often too late to do anything once the money has been transferred and the victim realises that they have been defrauded.
  • Cryptocurrency Scams
    Cryptocurrency, such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, is increasingly being used in transactions across the world. In turn, scammers have used promises of financial ‘quick wins’ to persuade would-be investors to transfer money to build cryptocurrency portfolios. Once the money has been sent and the victim realises they have been scammed, then there is little chance of getting the money back from the scammers.
  • Invoicing or Impersonation Scams
    Authorised Push Payment (APP)/Bank Transfer Fraud can affect businesses and individuals. Scammers can pretend to be tradespeople or business suppliers and send fake invoices online. Again, once the payment has been made, it is often too late to get the money back.
  • Trusted Adviser/Brand Impersonation Scams
    Cybercriminals can use sophisticated techniques to deceive their victims into thinking they are their trusted advisers such as a solicitor or accountant, then persuade them to make payments such as an invoice or payment on account. Similarly, scammers can pretend they are from the police, local authority, tax office, banks or big brands such as broadband or utility providers, again deceiving people into handing over confidential bank details and/or making payments.
  • Conveyancing Scams
    Whilst exciting, buying a home is often the biggest financial transaction people will ever make in their lives, usually involving paying a substantial deposit and final balances.  Unfortunately, where there are large movements of money, there are scammers! Conveyancing and property scams are on the rise as fraudsters use intricate cons to get between you and your hard-earned savings. Conveyancing fraud involves scammers intercepting communications between you and your solicitor and diverting your money to their own accounts.
  • Investment Scams
    Investing can seem like an excellent way to capitalise on existing funds or build up a pension pot for retirement. However, where there is money, there are scammers. Unregulated, ‘too good to be true’, ‘guaranteed’ high return investment and pension scams mean that even seasoned investors are losing thousands. Scammers convince individuals looking for investment and pension growth opportunities to hand over money for seemingly legitimate schemes by posing as a representative of a trusted, regulated investment firm or group. Typically, it turns out that these opportunities either do not exist or if they do, the scammer keeps the investor’s money, rather than investing it. There are many types of unregulated investment and pension scams, examples include off-plan property (often abroad, such as hotels), storage units, carbon credits, biofuels, green oil, farmland and car parking spaces.
  • Employment Scams
    Also known as job or recruitment scams, employment scams prey on unsuspecting, sometimes vulnerable and financially naïve, individuals looking for a job. The scam involves the victim applying for or being contacted about a job, often working from home with no qualifications or experience, advertised on a recruitment site, such as LinkedIn or Indeed, or responding to aggressive marketing or direct messages on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok or WhatsApp. They are then asked to pay money for things like equipment, courses linked to the job, or to sign up to a ‘portal’ where they need to perform specific tasks to earn money. The scammers’ goal is to convince the victims to transfer their money or personal details.
  • Gold Investment Scams
    Gold and other precious metals have been popular investment options for centuries due to their tangibility and the fact that their value will generally at least remain stable and often increase during economic downturns. Like most investments, where there is an opportunity to make money, there will also be scammers. Fraudsters use sophisticated tricks and tactics to convince investors to part with their capital, promising high, guaranteed returns or even passing off fake gold.
  • ‘Dear Mum/Dad’ Scams
    This is where scammers text, WhatsApp message or email parents pretending to be their children and ask for emergency payments using stories such as they have lost their phones or an urgent rent payment needs to be paid.

It is extremely important to urgently advise the police and also your bank. You can also report any suspected scamming activity to Action Fraud, the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre. If you have lost money, then that may lead to a criminal investigation by the police.

The specialist fraud team at TLS Lawyers are helping many clients recover refunds on a no-win, no-fee basis. If you have a claim, we will deal with your claim from start to finish, whilst keeping you up to date as the case progresses.

The steps in the claims process are:

  1. Submit your claim with us by completing either the online claim form, request a callback, telephone our office, or email us using the contact details provided.
  2. A member of the fraud team will discuss your claim with you and advise whether you may have a claim that we can deal with.  If we can assist you, we will send you our welcome pack which contains useful information on what to expect throughout your claim as well as details of what information we’ll need from you.
  3. You will be assigned a case handler. If following an initial assessment of your case we think you have a claim, we will be in touch to go through the next steps. If we don’t think you have a claim, we will provide our reasons why so that you may consider other options.
  4. Your case handler will ask for and review any additional documentation needed to progress your claim, this will include contacting the banks involved on your behalf. You will be kept up to date by email and phone calls if required.
  5. Depending on the circumstances of your case and due to a wide range of factors outside of our control, making a refund claim can take several months to complete – as your case progresses, we will try to give you as much information as possible about the likely timescales. We will continue to update you on your claim, and you will be able to contact your dedicated case handler if there are any issues or concerns.
  6. We work on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis, which means that if your claim is unsuccessful, there will be no charge for the work we do.

The specialist team at TLS Lawyers has many years’ of experience in successfully dealing with claims against FOS, even where initial complaints have been rejected.

We understand the time limits to be followed, the information needed and the claims and appeals processes. The team will also deal with any complex legal arguments and defences that the bank may raise. The combination of our experienced team and digital case management systems means that we proactively pursue your claim and aim to get the best possible results.

It will cost you nothing to make an enquiry and once our team has reviewed your potential case and if we feel it suitable, then we will enter into a no-win-no-fee agreement. This means, that if the case is unsuccessful, we will not charge for the time we have spent on the case.

If you, your friend or a relative has been conned into making payments to fraudsters by either writing a cheque or via online banking, then please get in touch with our specialist team for a confidential, no-obligation conversation.

TSL Lawyers pledge to:

  • Always fight your corner.
  • Explain anything you don't understand.
  • Provide full transparency on our charges.
  • Never ask for any upfront payment.
  • Recover the best compensation we can.
  • Keep your personal information safe.
  • Respond quickly to any queries.

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