Romance Scam Recovery
Money sent to someone you believed you were in a relationship with. These are authorised push payment claims, and the reimbursement rules cover them.
13 months
Usual window to raise a reimbursement claim
Bank
Carries the burden on gross negligence
$0
Payable before a claim succeeds
What this service is, and what it is not
Romance fraud follows a pattern. Contact is made on a dating app, a social network or a game. The relationship is built patiently, often over months, before money is ever mentioned. When it is, the reason is urgent and sympathetic: a medical bill, a customs charge, a business deal that has gone wrong, a flight home that keeps being cancelled. Payments start small and grow.
Almost all of these losses leave by bank transfer, which makes them authorised push payments. Since the mandatory reimbursement rules took effect, the starting position for an in-scope payment is that your bank reimburses you. It can refuse only in narrow circumstances, and the burden of establishing those sits with the bank, not with you.
The refusal we see most often is gross negligence. Banks argue that the warnings were clear, that the story was implausible, or that you ignored a confirmation-of-payee mismatch. Gross negligence is a high legal threshold, significantly more than being mistaken or trusting. Sustained, professional grooming is a recognised feature of this fraud, and the Financial Ombudsman Service has been consistent that being deceived by it is not the same as being reckless with your own money.
Vulnerability matters here more than in any other claim we run. Recent bereavement, isolation, a health condition or a disability all bear on what a bank should reasonably have done, and firms are required to take it into account. If any of that applies to you, tell us. It is often the part of the case the bank has failed to consider.
You can raise this claim yourself, free, by contacting your bank and asking for it to be treated as an APP fraud reimbursement claim. If the bank refuses, the referral to the Financial Ombudsman is also free.
Business challenges this addresses
You feel too embarrassed to report it
This is the most common reason people do not claim, and it is the reason the fraud works. These operations are run at scale by organised teams using tested scripts. Being deceived by one says nothing about your judgement.
The bank says you authorised the payments
You did, and that is exactly what an authorised push payment is. Authorising a payment you were deceived into making is the situation the reimbursement rules exist to cover.
You are accused of gross negligence
A high bar, and one the bank must evidence rather than assert. Ignoring a generic on-screen warning during a months-long deception is not the same thing as recklessness.
Payments went out over many months
A long sequence of transfers is characteristic of this fraud, not a reason to refuse. It also raises a fair question about why the bank's own monitoring never intervened.
You are still not certain it was a scam
Then say so. We would rather establish the facts with you than push you into a position you do not hold, and a claim built on an uncertain account will not survive scrutiny anyway.
How we deliver it
Every stage has a named owner on our side and a defined output. You always know what is happening and what comes next.
Typical duration: Most cases resolve in 8–16 weeks
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A conversation, not a form
You tell us what happened at whatever pace suits you. Nothing here is judged, and you will not be asked to justify why you believed someone.
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Payment and scope check
We list every payment, establish which are in scope of the reimbursement rules, and confirm whether the fifteen-month claim window is open.
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Evidence and vulnerability
Messages, transfers, the account details you were given, and anything about your circumstances at the time that the bank should have weighed. This is the part banks most often get wrong.
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Reimbursement claim
We put the claim in writing, address the gross negligence argument before the bank raises it, and hold the firm to the response deadline.
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Ombudsman referral
If the bank refuses, we refer the complaint with a full submission. Romance fraud is an area where refusals are overturned with some regularity.
What you receive
- A first conversation handled by someone trained in this specific fraud
- A payment-by-payment scope and deadline assessment
- A written reimbursement claim citing the applicable rules
- A prepared answer to the gross negligence argument
- Your circumstances at the time put properly in front of the bank
- Full Financial Ombudsman referral and submission if needed
What changes afterwards
Reimbursement is the starting position
For payments in scope of the mandatory rules, the bank reimburses unless it can establish a specific exception. That is a materially better position than arguing for goodwill.
Deception is not negligence
We make that argument explicitly, with reference to how the fraud was actually run against you.
Vulnerability is a duty, not a plea
Firms are required to take it into account. Where a bank has not, that is a failing on its part rather than a weakness in your claim.
Frequently asked
You control how much you tell us and when. We need the payments and the account details to run the claim; the personal detail is only relevant where it supports the vulnerability argument, and you decide whether to use it.
Yes. Willingly is precisely the point: an authorised push payment is one you made yourself. The rules exist because people are deceived into authorising payments, and that is what happened to you.
Claims under the mandatory reimbursement rules generally need to be raised within thirteen months of the last payment, and the Ombudsman route runs to six years from the event. Tell us the dates before assuming you are out of time.
Stop sending money and speak to us or your bank first. A promise of repayment, or a request for one further payment to release funds, is a standard part of the script and is where the largest losses usually happen.
No. Your claim is confidential between you, your bank and, if it goes that far, the Ombudsman. You choose who else knows.
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