Investment scam compensation:
Claim refunds for Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud

Investment fraud 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 do exist, but the scammer has kept your money, rather than investing it for you.

Many investment scams incorporate a form of Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, where the victim is convinced to make a payment through their own bank for what they believe to be a legitimate opportunity. As the transfer is instantaneous, the scammer will move the money straight onto a second, often overseas, account by which time it is virtually impossible to recover, and the victim may have lost thousands.

There are many types of unregulated investment and pension scams, including:

• Off-plan property (often abroad, such as hotel developments)
• Storage units
• Carbon credits
• Biofuels
• Green oil
• Farmland
• Car parking spaces
• Listed building development projects

If you are considering putting money into investment schemes, either directly or as a way of building your pension pot, it is important that you familiarise yourself with the warning signs and hallmarks of an investment scam, even if you see yourself as an experienced investor.

Some red flags of investment/pension fraud include:

• Promises of ‘low risk, high return’.
• The company gets in touch with you out of the blue or through ‘cold approach’ techniques such as unsolicited calls, emails or texts, someone knocking on your door, or messaging you unexpectedly on messaging apps or social media.
• The opportunity is time-limited or must be completed by a certain date to receive the ‘best rates’ or a discount – this is done to pressure you into agreeing and sending money without having time to carry out sufficient background checks.
• They tell you not to let anyone know about the investment as the offer is just for you – this is to stop friends, colleagues, or family members from detecting the fraudsters.
• The company is not registered with the City watchdog, the Financial Conduct Authority – the FCA has a list of registered providers and a warning list of unauthorised businesses to avoid. Beware – just because they are on the list does not mean that a scammer is not ‘cloning’ the details of a legitimate provider – it is easy to create professional and genuine looking but fake websites, social media, contact details and testimonials.

When considering investment opportunities always remember the adage: if it seems too good to be true…it probably is.

While it is essential to recognise the warning signs of an investment or pension scam, there are also a few ways that you can safeguard yourself and your finances from fraudsters:

• Do not answer unsolicited calls, texts, emails, social media requests or visits to your door relating to investment opportunities – legitimate, regulated companies will not get in touch in this way.
• Use the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) resources to back up your research – look up the investment opportunity using the FCA online warning list tool (if the option is listed, do not proceed) and look up the company on the FCA Financial Services register to ensure that the firm or individual is registered.
• Do your research and look for online reviews.
• Get independent advice from a regulated, FCA-authorised financial adviser before entering any investment opportunities.
• Take your time to consider your options and do not rush into anything, genuine companies will not pressure you into investing.

If you have lost money to an investment APP scam, you should immediately report the fraud to your bank, the police and also Action Fraud, the National Fraud and Cyber Crime Reporting Centre. This may trigger a criminal investigation into the scam.

Your bank will also investigate the case and, depending on the circumstances of the case, you may receive a refund from your bank, but as the money has been moved on this is not always possible. Banks are increasingly being held to account and shouldering responsibility for push payment scams if they have failed to take sufficient steps to protect their customers from the fraudsters.

If you have lost money to an investment push payment scam and your bank is refusing to compensate you, then you can take the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), an independent, Government-backed body responsible for resolving disputes between consumers and financial institutions, such as banks.

In recent years, as scammers have become more sophisticated, the FOS has dealt with an increasing number of cases involving the banks’ safeguards and processes to protect their customers from falling victim to Authorised Push Payment fraud.

Our dedicated APP Fraud team has many years of experience in dealing with the FOS and successfully claiming compensation for our clients.

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, as well as keep you fully up to date at every stage of your claim.

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.

Our APP and investment fraud teams have recently been featured on the BBC One series ‘Northern Justice’ as well as the BBC’s Morning Live programme. The BBC programmes show how our team has helped clients get the substantial compensation and justice they deserve.