Will your bank refund a crypto scam? UK APP fraud reimbursement explained

If you’ve lost money in a crypto scam, one of the first questions is whether your bank will give it back. Since October 2024, UK banks must reimburse most victims of authorised push payment (APP) scams, where you’re tricked into sending money yourself. But crypto scams often fall outside those rules, because of the way the money usually moves.

This guide explains what the rules cover, why many crypto scams aren’t covered, the cases that are, and what you can still do. For where to report a scam, see how to report a crypto scam.

What the reimbursement rules cover

The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) set the rules out in its consolidated policy statement PS25/5 (May 2025). In short:

• Which payments: Faster Payments and CHAPS payments sent and received by payment firms in the UK, made on or after 7 October 2024.
• What kind of fraud: a payment you authorised to an account controlled by someone other than you, after being deceived, for example about who you were paying or what for.
• Who: individuals, microenterprises and charities.
• How much: up to £85,000 per claim. There’s no minimum.
• How fast: your bank must reimburse you within five business days, though it can pause the clock in limited cases, such as gathering information from other banks or law enforcement.
• Excess: your bank may deduct up to £100, but not if you’re a vulnerable customer.
• Time limit: banks can refuse claims made more than 13 months after the final payment.

The PSR also says the rules apply to multi-step fraud cases. Two exceptions let a bank refuse: if you acted fraudulently yourself, or with gross negligence (the “consumer standard of caution”). Neither exception can be applied to vulnerable customers.

Why most crypto scams fall outside

The PSR lists what the rules don’t apply to. The first item uses crypto as its example: payments that take place across other payment systems, such as when a consumer sends funds to their account at a crypto exchange and then pays a fraudster via a cryptocurrency.

That’s how many crypto scams work. A typical path looks like this:

1. You send money by bank transfer to your own account at a crypto exchange.
2. You buy crypto there.
3. Following the scammer’s instructions, you send the crypto to their wallet.

The bank transfer in step 1 went to an account you control, so it isn’t a payment to “someone other than the consumer”. The loss happened in step 3, which is a crypto transfer, not a Faster Payment or CHAPS payment. So the mandatory reimbursement rules don’t bite.

The PSR’s list of exclusions also includes payments made before 7 October 2024, international payments, payments for unlawful purposes, and civil disputes, such as paying a genuine seller for goods that turn out to be faulty.

When a crypto-related scam can be covered

The rules are about how you paid, not what the scam was about. If a fake “crypto investment” firm got you to send money by bank transfer directly to a UK bank account it controlled, that payment can fall within the rules, as long as the other conditions are met.

What matters is the payment itself. If you were deceived into paying someone else’s UK account by Faster Payments or CHAPS, check whether you can claim, even if the scam was dressed up as a crypto opportunity.

Two scams compared

Card, cash and cheque payments

The PSR says card, cash and cheque payments aren’t covered by these rules: they have their own, different protections. If you paid by card, contact your card provider straight away.

The Financial Ombudsman can still look at your case

Falling outside the reimbursement rules doesn’t end the matter. The Financial Ombudsman Service says it still investigates cases involving payments to cryptocurrency providers and payments to a customer’s own account, to decide whether the bank should have done more.

In those cases, it considers whether the payments should have alerted the bank because they were suspicious or unusual, and what the bank did once it was aware of a possible scam. In practice, that means looking at whether your transfers stood out from the way you normally use your account.

The PSR’s policy statement also confirms that if you’re unhappy with how your bank assessed a claim under the rules, you can take your complaint to the Ombudsman, which decides what is fair and reasonable.

What to do if you’ve been scammed

1. Call your bank immediately, using the number on your card or statement. Ask it to stop any pending payments and log a fraud claim.
2. Report the scam: in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, to Report Fraud; in Scotland, to Police Scotland on 101. See how to report a crypto scam.
3. Tell the crypto exchange, too, in case it can freeze anything still on the platform.
4. Keep everything: bank statements, exchange records, wallet addresses, transaction IDs, messages and screenshots.
5. Claim within 13 months of the last payment.
6. Complain if the bank says no: first to the bank, then to the Financial Ombudsman Service.

Be very wary of anyone who contacts you offering to recover the money for a fee: that’s a common follow-up scam. See crypto recovery scams.

The bigger picture

Because the reimbursement rules stop at your own exchange account, the strongest protection is not to send the crypto in the first place. Red flags include guaranteed returns, pressure to act quickly, contacts that start on social media or dating apps, and instructions to move money “to keep it safe”. See pig butchering scams and crypto scams targeting older adults.

For losses you can’t recover, see crypto scam losses and tax, which explains why HMRC doesn’t treat money lost to a scam as a capital loss.