Not upheld: scam - failure to prevent unauthorised transfer and failure to recover funds complaint against Wise Payments Limited trading as Wise

Decision detail

Summary

Mr G complained that Wise failed to refund approximately £600 he transferred in July 2025 to an individual he believed was providing visa support but who subsequently scammed him. Wise declined to refund the payments, stating there was insufficient evidence of a scam and the transactions were not out of character for the account. The ombudsman found that while Wise has obligations to monitor for fraud, these particular payments would not have appeared suspicious as Euro transactions were normal for Mr G's account and the amounts and frequency were typical. The ombudsman concluded that Wise was not required to intervene and its recovery efforts were reasonable, therefore not upholding the complaint.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Payment Services Regulations 2017, which presume the customer is liable for authorised payments in the first instance. While Wise has obligations to monitor for fraud and unusual transactions, the ombudsman found that these particular payments would not have appeared suspicious or unusual to Wise. The payments were in Euros (normal for the account), made in typical amounts and frequency, and lacked the common hallmarks of a scam. Therefore, Wise was not required to intervene. The ombudsman also noted that Wise's recovery efforts were reasonable given the lack of sufficient evidence of wrongdoing.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website