Fraud and Scam claim - Rejection

Thank you for your enquiry with CEL Solicitors. Due to the information provided, we believe that on this occasion we are unable to continue with your claim.

You can find details on why we may decline a case below. We wish you the best of luck pursuing other avenues and hope that you will consider CEL Solicitors for any future legal or financial problems we may be able to assist you with.

Further Advice

You must report the scam to the police via Action Fraud and complain to your bank as soon as possible after the scam. If you do make a complaint, then you have 6 months to complain to the Financial Ombudsman’s Service if your claim is rejected by the bank.

You usually have 6 years in which to issue court proceedings from the date you became aware of the scam.

We understand that this is a very distressing time for you. Please be very careful as scammers often tend to retarget previous victims a few months or even sometimes years after the initial scam. Be vigilant, and if in doubt, do not send money. Discuss it with friends, family, the police, or your bank if you think it is a scam before proceeding with any payment. If in doubt, then do not send money.

Please find below websites where you can find out more information on scams and scam prevention:

Action Fraud
To Report Scams, advice on prevention, types of scams and help
Action Fraud

Which
Consumer rights – help, news and advice re scams.
Scam – Which? Consumer Rights – Which?

Take Five Stop Fraud
Advice on scams and scam prevention
Take Five – To Stop Fraud | To Stop Fraud (takefive-stopfraud.org.uk)

Financial Ombudsman
How to complain if your bank will not refund you.
How to complain (financial-ombudsman.org.uk)

Again, we are really sorry that we could not help you on this occasion. We hope that you are successful in recovering your lost money.

Complaining Yourself

If you have a low-value claim, then we would advise you to complain to your bank using our template letter below if you believe that you have been an innocent victim of a scam. Please complete your personal details, provide details of your losses, and how the scam occurred, and then post or email it to your bank’s complaint and/or Fraud Team. You can also use this complaint letter with any other companies that have been involved in the scam. Simply amend the details when referring to a bank with another financial organization.

Free Complaint Letter

Reasons why we can’t assist with your case:

There are several factors we must consider before taking on a case. These are outlined below:

The primary reason we can’t accept cases is if we believe your case won’t be successful either through the Financial Ombudsman Service or through litigation in the courts. We have a duty of care to our clients, and to manage expectations, we only accept cases with over a 51% chance of success.
We are also unable to handle low-value claims under £3,000. This is because, if they aren’t complex, we believe you should be able to make a complaint yourself. Conducting in-depth investigations, drafting complex complaint letters, completing a fraud report, and/or issuing court proceedings for claims under this amount wouldn’t be cost-effective. However, it doesn’t mean you won’t be successful, and we encourage you to try to claim yourself using our letter.
If you paid the scammer through PayPal, eBay, or another site that refunds victims of scams directly, you should contact these organisations directly and seek a refund using their internal online complaints procedure.
If you’re bankrupt, even if we’re successful, you won’t receive the money.
If you’ve already lodged a complaint with the Financial Ombudsman Service and it was rejected more than 2 weeks ago, you have only two weeks to appeal the decision, so we cannot make a second complaint.
If you’ve complained to your bank and received a formal rejection response more than 6 months ago, you can only complain to the Financial Ombudsman Service 6 months after the bank’s formal rejection.
If the scam occurred too long ago, we may be unable to conduct meaningful current investigations. We cannot accept cases where the scam happened more than six years ago, as often there are no records remaining to support your claim.

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CEL Solicitors is a trading name of Cheshire Estate and Legal Limited, Company No: 10370954, registered in England & Wales. Registered Office: 12th Floor, 20 Chapel Street, Liverpool L3 9AG. Authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority, SRA No: 633955. A list of directors is available at Companies House.