Not upheld: Card / payment disputes complaint against Paysafe Financial Services Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S complained that Paysafe refused to refund four transactions made on 9 October 2023 that he claimed he did not authorise. The transactions totalled a significant amount and were made shortly after Mr S received his salary. Paysafe maintained the transactions were authorised based on evidence showing they were made from Mr S's trusted device with corresponding logins. The ombudsman examined the evidence including device history, login records, and IP address data and concluded it was more likely that Mr S himself authorised the transactions. The complaint was not upheld, and no refund was ordered.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Payment Service Regulations 2017 requirement that Paysafe refund unauthorised payments. However, the ombudsman found the evidence showed the transactions were likely authorised by Mr S himself. The key factors were: the transactions used a trusted device linked to the account since June 2023; login records showed access at the same time as the transactions from the same device; the IP address corresponded to Brazil where Mr S was residing; Mr S had not reported losing his phone or sharing access codes; and Mr S had not reported suspicious contact. While acknowledging the possibility of fraud through phone compromise, this typically requires victims to share access codes, which Mr S denied. The ombudsman concluded the evidence made it more likely Mr S authorised the transactions himself.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website