What to do if You’ve been Scammed

The number, variety and sophistication of scams are on the rise. At Refundee we estimate that over £1 billion of people's money has been lost this year in the UK alone. If you’ve been a victim of a scam, it’s nothing to be ashamed of.

Here, we set out the steps you need  to take if you’ve been a victim.

Act quickly and tell your bank

As soon as you suspect something is up, immediately tell your bank. This is because they need to act quickly to try and get the money back from wherever the money has been sent. If you are lucky, the scammer will not yet have moved your money out of wherever you sent it to. In these cases, your bank can arrange to get your money back if it’s still there. 

What if it’s too late and the money has gone?

Unfortunately, in most cases scammers act quickly to move any money you’ve sent them to somewhere else. This will usually mean that your bank can’t do anything about it.  

What can you still do…

There are expectations upon banks to keep your money safe, and intervene in situations where transactions look particularly unusual or out of character. At Refundee, we don’t think banks have been sticking to these obligations as much as they should have. 

Therefore you can complain to your bank if you don’t think they’ve done enough to protect you. If you are unhappy with the bank’s response, you can then take your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service - free of charge. 

We tell you how to do it yourself, but we are a claims management company that does this for you for a 15% fee (plus VAT). It’s important to point out that we only charge you in the event you are successful and get all or some of your money back. 

If you’d like to use Refundee, fill out our online form to start the process.