Not upheld: scam / fraud liability and chargeback recovery complaint against Wise Payments Limited

Decision detail

Summary

M, a small business, lost £1,848.87 across three card payments after Miss N was tricked by a spoofed email and cloned portal into providing card details and approving payments she believed were part of a routine seller verification process. The ombudsman found the payments were authorised because Miss N approved each transaction via 3DS authentication screens that clearly displayed merchant and amount information, and that Wise had no obligation to intervene given the payment amounts and patterns were not sufficiently suspicious. The ombudsman also found that chargeback recovery was not viable because the payments were 3DS approved and made to what appeared to be a legitimate merchant, and that Wise's fraud reporting procedures, while not ideal, did not constitute significant failings warranting compensation.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Miss N provided card details and approved each payment through unambiguous 3DS authentication screens that clearly displayed merchant and amount information, meaning the payments could be treated as authorised under the PSRs regardless of whether she understood the full context. The payment amounts and spending pattern were not sufficiently suspicious to require Wise to intervene, and a chargeback claim would have had no realistic prospect of success because the payments were 3DS approved and made to what appeared to be a legitimate merchant. Wise's fraud reporting procedures and response times, while not ideal, did not constitute significant failings.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website