What to do if you think you've been scammed

Kathryn Westmore, Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Financial Crime and Security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) think tank, says: “If you’re not happy with the bank's initial response you can complain directly to the bank and they should get back to you about your complaint and investigate it within 15 days. If they don't or you're still not happy then you can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service who will investigate the circumstances of the fraud and decide whether to uphold your complaint or not. When it comes to these APP-type frauds, the Financial Ombudsman generally uphold just over 50% of frauds so if you have been defrauded and you’re not getting any success from your bank, it's definitely worth escalating it.”