Barclays Bank Transfer Fraud Compensation:
Claim Refunds for Authorised Push Payment (APP) Scams

In several recent complaints upheld by the Financial Ombudsman Service, Barclays Bank has been found to have failed in adequately fulfilling its responsibilities to customers, leading to significant financial losses for the victims:

• Miss I was refunded over £80,000 following a fake investment opportunity in which she transferred money from her Barclays account.
• Mr and Mrs M were refunded £50,000 also lost to an investment scam in which they transferred money to a fake investment adviser via an in-branch transfer.

In both cases, the FOS investigations found that Barclays Bank should have performed more stringent checks, looked out for red flags and taken steps to act on opportunities to potentially halt the scams as they happened. In these cases, the scam victims were refunded their entire financial losses, plus interest.

If you think you have been targeted by an APP scam relating to your Barclays Bank account, you should first report this to the bank, the police, and Action Fraud, the UK’s national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime.

Barclays Bank should then investigate the report and, depending on the circumstances of the case may make a refund payment; however, if you are refused a refund and believe that Barclays Bank were negligent or should have acted to prevent the fraud, then the APP fraud team at TLW Solicitors may be able to help with your claim.

We have a specialised, dedicated APP Fraud team who work closely with our clients to achieve the best possible outcome for their FOS claim, even if they have been previously unsuccessful. Our experienced and empathetic team recognise the complexity and time sensitivity involved in the FOS application process.

With our combination of knowledge and advanced case management systems, you can be sure that your refund claim is being handled with the utmost care. We will keep you informed on the progress of your case at every step of the process.

The specialist fraud team at TLW Solicitors 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.

Members of TLW Solicitors’ APP Fraud team have been featured on the BBC’s Northern Justice and Morning Live TV shows.

Episodes from Northern Justice demonstrate how TLW Solicitors helped scam victims recover substantial compensation. Full details about the BBC series and how TLW successfully supported our clients can be found here.