The company proposed an investment that involved a payment exceeding the bank’s internet banking payment limit. In July, he called the bank and asked to increase his limit to $25,000. He said he was buying cryptocurrency. He then made two payments of $20,000 to the exchange platform. A few days later, he called the bank again, this time asking it to increase his limit to $50,000. He did not tell the bank the reason for the increase. He then made a payment of $45,000 to the platform. He made further payments in the next few days, bringing the total amount transferred to $143,000.  

In August, Wilbert contacted the platform directly to check an email it had supposedly sent him. The platform said the email was fake. When the financial trading company still insisted it was legitimate, Wilbert realised he had been scammed.  

Wilbert said the bank should partially reimburse him for his loss because the activity on his account was out of character, and the bank acknowledged it did not warn him about the possibility of scams. Nonetheless, it refused to reimburse him for his loss, saying he was responsible, and instead offered him a goodwill payment of $2,000, an offer he rejected.

Our investigation

We did not consider there was anything about the payments that should have suggested to the bank the possibility that Wilbert was being scammed. Had it detected such a possibility, it would have been obliged to make inquiries about the payments. But there was nothing suspicious about the payments. When Wilbert called the bank in July to increase his payment limit, he told the bank he was making a cryptocurrency investment. Cryptocurrency trading is a common and legal activity, and does not, in itself, suggest a scam. The cryptocurrency trading platform was legitimate. Wilbert had moved his funds from this platform to a company he believed was legitimate. It was not. The bank was not aware of this, and thus could not have warned him about the risks of sending money to the company.

Outcome

We did not uphold Wilbert's complaint and recommended he accept the bank's offer of $2,000 compensation. Wilbert accepted the offer.