We’ve heard that a number of people have recently received letters from scammers claiming to be from the Financial Ombudsman Service.
The letter suggests that a refund is due for bank charges. This is followed by a letter claiming to be from HMRC confirming a refund of tax is due – this is part of the same scam. We have been in contact with HMRC about this.
Please do not respond to these letters. The Financial Ombudsman Service doesn't write to or phone people out of the blue to ask for personal information, or to suggest that a refund it due. We would only contact you if you've been in touch with us to register a complaint – and then we would only speak to you about that complaint. We're a free service so we will never ask you for money and we don't pay compensation to you directly.
If you have received a letter from us that seems suspicious and you’d like to check if it’s genuine, please phone us directly on 0300 123 9 123 and we’ll be happy to help.
For more information on what to look out for if you think someone is pretending to be fake Financial Ombudsman Service, head to Action Fraud’s website here.
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