Reporting
The FCA, Action Fraud and your bank. This is not about your money — it is about warnings, tracing and takedowns, and it is worth doing anyway.
10 Investment scams
Investment scams: report first, recover second.
Fraud is not mis-selling, and treating one as the other costs time you do not have. A scam involves deception by someone with no intention of honouring the deal; a mis-selling complaint is about a sale that broke the rules. The first thing to do with a suspected scam is report it and press your bank, not research whether you have a claim.
Short answer
Report an investment scam to the FCA, Action Fraud and your bank immediately, and ask your bank about recalling the payment. Scam losses are usually pursued against the fraudster rather than through the Financial Ombudsman, unless a bank, platform or adviser failed in its own duties.
Indicators only. Not legal or financial advice. Not a prediction of outcome.
01 Is this you?
Tick what fits.
A claim is worth pursuing when the facts line up. These are the facts that matter most for this product. If three or more describe your situation, the checker is worth five minutes.
- You were contacted first: by phone, social media, a messaging group or an online advert.
- The returns were described as fixed, guaranteed or remarkably consistent.
- The firm’s claims could not be verified on the FCA Register.
- Communication moved to a messaging app, and the pressure increased.
- Withdrawals became slower, then needed a fee, then stopped.
- The website, app or branding looked like a well-known firm’s.
- You were asked to send money to an account in a different name.
- Someone contacted you offering to get your earlier money back for a fee.
02 How it works
How a claim works for this product.
Report while the trail is warm
Report to the FCA, to Action Fraud, and to your bank. The FCA uses reports to issue warnings and to add firms to its warning list. Speed matters because both banking traces and website takedowns depend on how quickly the trail is followed.
Talk to your bank about the payment itself
Ask, in writing, what recall or recovery steps have been taken, and what its position is on authorised push payment fraud. `[CONFIRM: set out the current authorised push payment reimbursement rules and their limits, with a link to the regulator’s page, before publishing.]` Keep the answers: they may be relevant if you later complain about how the bank handled your instructions.
Distinguish the fraudster from the institution
The person who took your money is usually the target of any recovery attempt. The Financial Ombudsman can look at complaints about a bank, platform or adviser’s own conduct — for example, where a bank ignored a clear warning, or where a platform allowed an account to be operated in your name. Those are different questions with different evidence.
Ignore the recovery room
A second approach promising to recover your first loss, usually for an upfront fee, is one of the most common follow-on frauds. Treat any unsolicited offer of recovery, especially one that asks for payment in advance, as a warning rather than a lifeline.
Protect yourself from the aftermath
Change passwords, review open banking permissions and credit searches, and tell your bank so it can watch the account. Report nuisance marketing to the Information Commissioner’s Office if you are being contacted unlawfully.
03 The clock
Time limits are the first thing to check.
- Report immediately: warning lists, banking traces and website takedowns all depend on speed. There is no advantage in waiting.
- Bank complaint: if you complain about the bank’s handling, the usual rules apply — normally a final written response within 8 weeks, and 6 months from that response to go to the Ombudsman.
- Firm complaint: normally within 6 years or within 3 years of becoming aware of cause to complain, where the complaint is about a firm’s conduct.
- Civil recovery: limitation runs from when you could reasonably have known. Fraud cases have their own rules, and they are technical — take legal advice.
- FSCS: strictly constrained. Fraud by an unauthorised person is generally outside the scheme; a claim may exist where an authorised firm failed in its own regulated activity.
04 The routes
Which route fits your facts.
Complain about an institution’s conduct
Where a bank, platform or adviser failed in its own duties, the normal complaint route and the Ombudsman are available and free.
Civil recovery against the fraudster
Often the only route to the money itself, and frequently of limited practical value where the money has gone. Take advice before spending on it.
FSCS
Generally not available for fraud by dishonest unauthorised people. It can be relevant where an authorised firm’s own failure caused the loss.
05 Evidence
Documents to gather.
You do not need everything before you start. But a complaint that names dates, amounts and documents is much harder to answer with a template letter.
- Every payment: dates, amounts, account names and sort codes
- Bank statements showing the transfers
- The website, app, emails, texts and chat logs
- Any contract, statement or “account dashboard” the scheme provided
- The names used by the people you dealt with, and their contact details
- Your bank’s responses to your recall requests
- Your reports to the FCA and Action Fraud, with reference numbers
- Any warning-list entry that matches the firm you dealt with
06 Questions
Questions people ask about this product.
What is the first thing I should do?
Contact your bank and ask about recalling or tracing the payment, then report it to the FCA and Action Fraud. Doing that today is worth more than any research you can do on whether a claim exists.
Can I claim from FSCS for a scam?
Usually not, where the loss was caused by dishonest people who were never authorised. FSCS exists for authorised firms that fail. There are narrow circumstances where an authorised firm’s own failure is the cause, and those need checking individually — the scheme’s eligibility rules are on its own site.
Someone says they can get my money back. Should I pay?
Be extremely careful. Recovery offers that require an upfront fee, or that arrive unsolicited, are a recognised follow-on fraud. Check any firm on the FCA Firm Checker and take independent advice before paying anyone anything.
Is my bank ever responsible?
It can be, in specific ways: how it responded to warnings, whether it followed your instructions properly, and how it handled the fraud once reported. A complaint about the bank’s conduct is a separate matter from the fraud itself, and the Ombudsman can consider it.
Is a scam the same as mis-selling?
No. Mis-selling concerns a sale that broke the rules — usually by an authorised firm, with a recommendation to test. A scam is deception with no intention of performing. The evidence, the routes and the realistic outcomes differ.
How do I stop the contact continuing?
Report unwanted marketing to the Information Commissioner’s Office, and forward suspected scam texts to 7726, the free service run by mobile providers. Tell your bank so it can monitor the account, and change any passwords the fraudster may have seen.
Sources
Every rule, limit and deadline on this page comes from the official sources below. Each was read on the date shown. Where we could not verify a rule against the official text, we have left a visible instruction to confirm it rather than describing it from memory.
Warning list of unauthorised firms
Financial Conduct Authority
Checked 12 October 2026 — Published warnings about firms and individuals we may need to flag in the checker.
Financial Services Register / FCA Firm Checker
Financial Conduct Authority
Checked 12 October 2026 — The official register used to confirm whether a firm is authorised and what it is permitted to do.
Financial Conduct Authority
Checked 12 October 2026 — The complaint process, the eight-week final response and the six-month window to go to the Ombudsman.
FSCS compensation rules and eligibility
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Checked 12 October 2026 — The conditions that must all be met before FSCS can pay a claim.
Financial Services Compensation Scheme
Checked 12 October 2026 — Investment compensation limits per eligible person per firm, and what FSCS cannot cover.
Understanding compensation for financial loss
Financial Ombudsman Service
Checked 12 October 2026 — Award limits for cases referred to the Ombudsman, and how compensation and interest are worked out.
MIS-SOLD INVESTMENT / CLAIM CHECKER
// Next step
Check your own facts against the eight checks.
Free, private, and no obligation. You get an indicator, the checks that fired, where you are against the deadlines, and the documents to gather.
Canonical: https://mis-sold-investments.com/investment-scam-recovery/