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Banking

The bank said commercial decision. £2,400 back after one letter.

Outcome
£2,400 refunded
Timeline
APP fraud, resolved in 11 days
Anonymised as
Small business owner, Manchester

A convincing invoice from what looked like her existing supplier. Different bank details. Two thousand four hundred pounds gone to a fraudster. She reported it to her bank within the hour.

The bank's first answer was that the payment had been authorised (technically true - she'd typed the payment) and offered nothing. She was told, in as many words, that this was a commercial decision.

That decision was wrong. Since 7 October 2024 the Payment Systems Regulator's mandatory reimbursement scheme requires UK banks to refund most APP fraud victims within 5 business days unless they can prove gross negligence. "Commercial decision" is not one of the permitted refusal grounds.

The letter cited the exact PSR scheme, the CRM Code, and named the Financial Ombudsman as the free escalation route. The bank reversed its decision within 11 days and added interest for the period the money was out of her account.

What Fightingback used
The tool that drafted the letter APP fraud reimbursement letter →
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Names, cities and identifying details have been anonymised. The legal grounds, statutes cited, timeline and outcome are as they happened. Past outcomes do not guarantee future results. This is not legal advice for your specific situation.