Bank transfer scam: what to do in the first hour
If you have sent money to a scammer by bank transfer, the first hour should be about stopping further loss and giving the bank enough information to trace the payment. Do not wait for the scammer to “refund” you or pay another fee to release the money.
Contact your bank immediately through an official channel, say you believe you are the victim of an APP scam, provide the payment details and stop communicating financially with the scammer. Qualifying Faster Payments and CHAPS scam claims can fall under the mandatory reimbursement regime, with a standard cap of £85,000 per claim.
Call the sending bank before doing anything clever
Give the bank the recipient name, sort code/account details if available, payment amount, time and reference. If there were several payments, list them in order. The bank can start the scam process and may contact the receiving institution to try to trace or freeze funds.
Do not spend the first two hours researching recovery companies. Speed matters because scam money can be moved through other accounts quickly.
Practical check: You realise ten minutes after sending £4,500 that the investment account details belong to a fraudster. Write down the amount, date, deadline and channel before you act, then compare payment time, receiving account details, scam messages, bank warnings and whether more payments are scheduled. Contact the sending bank immediately, say clearly that you were deceived into an authorised payment, and ask for recovery plus an APP reimbursement claim where applicable. Keep payment confirmation, beneficiary details, messages, phone numbers, advert or website and the bank fraud reference together so a later conversation with the bank starts from a verified record rather than memory.
If the transfer is an in-scope APP scam payment made on or after 7 October 2024, the mandatory reimbursement regime can apply. The maximum mandatory reimbursement is £85,000 per claim, and firms generally reimburse within five business days unless they need additional information under the permitted stop-the-clock process.
Stop the second scam
Fraudsters often ask for another payment for tax, verification, insurance or release of the original funds. A second scam can also arrive from someone claiming they can recover the money for an upfront fee. Do not send anything else.
If the scammer had remote access to your phone or computer, disconnect that access, change banking and email credentials from a clean device where appropriate and tell the bank that remote-access software was involved.
Use a small decision table for this situation. Start with You realise ten minutes after sending £4,500 that the investment account details belong to a fraudster. Verify payment time, receiving account details, scam messages, bank warnings and whether more payments are scheduled before choosing. That prevents one unclear detail from driving the whole decision. Contact the sending bank immediately, say clearly that you were deceived into an authorised payment, and ask for recovery plus an APP reimbursement claim where applicable.
Preserve the evidence before accounts disappear
Save messages, email headers, phone numbers, adverts, invoices, fake investment dashboards and the exact payment instructions. Screenshot online profiles before they are deleted. Evidence should show how you were persuaded, not just the final transfer.
Write a short timeline while memory is fresh: 09:20 first call, 10:05 £2,000 payment, 10:40 second payment requested, 11:10 realised it was fraudulent. That timeline is much easier for a bank investigator to use than hundreds of unlabelled screenshots.
For You realise ten minutes after sending £4,500 that the investment account details belong to a fraudster., preserve payment confirmation, beneficiary details, messages, phone numbers, advert or website and the bank fraud reference. Put the items in date order and add a short note explaining what each item proves. Do not bury the key fact inside dozens of screenshots. Contact the sending bank immediately, say clearly that you were deceived into an authorised payment, and ask for recovery plus an APP reimbursement claim where applicable.
Know the reimbursement framework
For qualifying APP scam payments made through Faster Payments or CHAPS, the mandatory reimbursement rules apply to payments from 7 October 2024. The standard maximum is £85,000 per claim, and a firm may apply an excess of up to £100 in some cases. Vulnerable consumers can receive additional protection.
The rules do not cover every scam route. Card payments, cash, crypto and international transfers can use different mechanisms. Tell the bank precisely how the money moved rather than simply saying “I was scammed”.
Worked decision point: You realise ten minutes after sending £4,500 that the investment account details belong to a fraudster. Before taking an irreversible step, verify payment time, receiving account details, scam messages, bank warnings and whether more payments are scheduled through a channel you chose yourself. Contact the sending bank immediately, say clearly that you were deceived into an authorised payment, and ask for recovery plus an APP reimbursement claim where applicable. If the bank refuses reimbursement, ask for the exact reason and evidence relied on, then use the formal complaint route rather than reopening the fraud report from scratch.
Escalate if the bank handles the claim poorly
Ask for the reimbursement decision in writing. If rejected, identify the reason: out of scope, consumer standard of caution, timing, payment route or another ground. Then complain about that specific decision rather than resubmitting the same story without addressing the reason.
Fraud and payment-service complaints usually have a 15-business-day response timetable, with a longer backstop in limited circumstances. If the final response is unsatisfactory, the Financial Ombudsman Service can consider the complaint.
If you sent several transfers, do not report only the largest one. APP scams often start with a small 'test' payment and escalate after the victim sees a convincing fake balance or receives a fabricated withdrawal. The payments can form one claim or one fraud narrative even when the amounts differ. List all of them, including any transfer you initially thought was genuine. A complete chronology can also show how the scammer increased pressure or changed the story, which helps explain why later payments were made despite earlier warning signs.
If the scam involved a purchase, impersonation or investment, also tell the bank whether any part of the money came back. Partial returns, fake 'profits' and test withdrawals are common ways to build trust. A £200 withdrawal from a fake investment platform does not prove the later £8,000 transfer was genuine; it may have been part of the grooming. Include those returns in the timeline so the investigator understands why the scheme looked credible rather than treating the case as a single isolated payment.
Sources and verification
- Payment Systems Regulator - APP fraud reimbursement protections
- Financial Ombudsman Service - Fraud and scams
Victoria Hughes
The recovery sequence should be brutally simple: bank first, evidence second, security clean-up third. People lose valuable time because the scammer promises the transfer is reversible if one more fee is paid. Assume every further payment request is part of the fraud until your real bank says otherwise. Then build the reimbursement case around the exact payment route and the evidence of how the deception worked.
MyBankAnswers uses official provider and UK regulatory sources wherever practical. Information is general and does not constitute financial advice.