Investment fraud — crypto, forex, fake brokers.

Investment fraud now accounts for some of the largest individual APP fraud losses in the UK. Pig-butchering, cloned brokers, crypto trading mentors — the cover stories vary, but the legal route to a refund is the same. Here is how UK law treats investment scams and how to claim.

Is investment fraud covered by the PSR refund scheme?

Yes. Investment fraud is one of the named categories of Authorised Push Payment fraud covered by the Payment Systems Regulator’s Mandatory Reimbursement Scheme. If you sent the money from a UK bank account by Faster Payment or CHAPS to a UK-domiciled account on or after 7 October 2024, your bank must refund you up to £85,000 unless it can prove gross negligence.

What if the firm I paid was on the FCA register?

Check whether you actually paid the firm on the register or a "clone" of it. Cloned firm fraud — where scammers use the genuine firm’s name, FRN and address but their own bank details — is one of the most common investment fraud variants. The FCA publishes a clone warning list. Paying a cloned firm is still APP fraud and is still in scope of the PSR scheme.

I paid in crypto. Can I still claim?

If you used a UK bank Faster Payment to fund a UK-based crypto exchange, and the funds were then converted and sent on by the scammer, the original Faster Payment may still be claimable under the PSR scheme — particularly where the exchange was the immediate beneficiary and your bank should have flagged the destination. Cases involving crypto are factually complex and the Financial Ombudsman has heard a growing number of them.

How much can I get back?

The PSR cap is £85,000 per claim. The Financial Ombudsman’s award limit is £430,000 for complaints referred on or after 1 April 2024. Above either threshold, civil recovery against the receiving account holder may be available — usually with a solicitor, and with a freezing injunction in serious cases. Some investment fraud losses run into seven figures.

I am embarrassed to come forward. Will anyone find out?

You are far from alone — investment fraud, particularly the long-grooming pig-butchering variant, has affected tens of thousands of UK adults across every demographic. The bank, the Financial Ombudsman and the police all treat the matter confidentially. Published Ombudsman decisions are anonymised. There is no shame and no public record.

Should I use a Claims Management Company?

No. CMCs typically charge 25% to 40% of any refund, and they cannot do anything you cannot do yourself for free under the PSR scheme and the Financial Ombudsman. The whole regime is designed for unrepresented consumers. If you want help with the paperwork, a fixed-fee document service is far cheaper than a percentage CMC.

Scam Refund · Scam Types

Investment fraud — crypto, forex, fake brokers.

Investment fraud now accounts for some of the largest individual APP fraud losses in the UK. Pig-butchering, cloned brokers, crypto trading mentors — the cover stories vary, but the legal route to a refund is the same. Here is how UK law treats investment scams and how to claim.

What investment fraud looks like

Investment fraud rarely begins with an obvious scam pitch. Most cases start with a polished website, a charming WhatsApp group, a LinkedIn message from someone offering “mentoring”, or a stranger on a dating app who happens to have done well in crypto. There is often a small initial deposit that produces apparent gains, an attractive trading dashboard that shows real-time performance, and a long period of relationship-building before any large sum is requested. By the time the victim tries to withdraw, the gains turn out to be screen-only and the platform demands more money for “tax”, “verification” or “release fees” that never end. The pattern is now well-documented enough that it has a name — pig-butchering — and Action Fraud lists it among the fastest-growing UK fraud categories.

Other common investment fraud variants include cloned firm scams (the scammer uses the genuine name, FRN and address of an FCA-authorised firm, but their own bank details), recovery scams (often perpetrated against people who have already lost money to a previous fraud, offering to recover it for an upfront fee), and boiler-room share scams targeting older investors with unsolicited calls about supposedly unlisted high-growth companies.

Why the FCA Register matters — and the catch

Genuine UK investment firms are authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority and listed on the FCA Register at

. Each entry has a Firm Reference Number, a real address, and a list of permitted activities. The catch is that scammers know all this and routinely create cloned websites that copy the genuine firm’s details. The FCA publishes a separate “Warning List” of known clones at

fca.org.uk/scamsmart

. If you cannot find the firm on the register, or you find the firm but the contact details on the website do not match the register, that is a serious red flag.

For refund purposes, paying a cloned firm is treated identically to any other APP fraud — you authorised the payment, but you authorised it on the basis of a false representation about the identity of the recipient. The scheme rules apply.

Crypto cases — the funding-payment angle

Many investment frauds involve cryptocurrency at some stage. The typical pattern is that you send a Faster Payment from your UK bank to a UK-based crypto exchange, the exchange converts the funds to crypto, and the crypto is then sent to a wallet controlled by the scammer. Once the crypto leaves the exchange it is normally untraceable in any practical sense.

The key insight for refund claims is that the original Faster Payment from your UK bank to the UK exchange is itself a payment in scope of the PSR scheme — even though the ultimate destination is a crypto wallet. The Financial Ombudsman Service has decided several cases on the basis that the sending bank should have detected unusual patterns (rapid escalation in payment size, payments to a crypto exchange by a customer with no prior crypto activity, payments in tranches consistent with a known scam template) and intervened. Crypto cases are factually complex but they are not automatically out of reach.

The PSR scheme applies

Investment fraud is named in the PSR Mandatory Reimbursement Scheme as an in-scope category. If your last fraudulent payment was on or after 7 October 2024, was sent from a UK consumer account by Faster Payment or CHAPS to a UK-domiciled account, and totals up to £85,000, the scheme requires your bank to refund you within five working days unless it can prove gross negligence. The receiving bank pays half the cost of the refund.

Beyond the cap — FOS and civil recovery

Investment fraud losses sometimes run far above £85,000. Two further routes are available. The Financial Ombudsman Service has its own award limit of £430,000 for complaints referred on or after 1 April 2024 and has, in published decisions, taken a broad view of bank monitoring duties in large investment-fraud cases. Above the FOS limit, civil recovery is possible against the receiving account holder — typically with the help of a solicitor, sometimes with a freezing injunction in the High Court, and usually only economically rational where the loss is well into six figures.

Beware recovery scams

Once a person has been victim to investment fraud, they are statistically more likely to be approached by another scammer offering to help recover the money — for an upfront fee. These “recovery” or “asset retrieval” outfits are themselves frauds in nearly every case. The Action Fraud reporting line, the Financial Ombudsman Service and the FCA are free. No legitimate UK service will demand a percentage of supposedly recovered funds upfront. If you receive an unsolicited offer to help recover scammed funds, treat it as another scam.

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