Not upheld: unauthorized payment / fraud liability complaint against WorldRemit Ltd trading as SendWave

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs N complained that SendWave failed to reimburse a £100 payment she claimed was unauthorized after she received a scam call from someone claiming to be from SendWave requesting OTP codes. Mrs N maintained she did not disclose any OTPs and hung up the call, but a £100 payment was subsequently made to an account in Kenya. The ombudsman found that on balance of probabilities, Mrs N likely disclosed the OTPs to the scammers during the call after being tricked, as this was the only plausible explanation for how the payment could have been executed. The ombudsman concluded Mrs N was liable under Payment Services Regulations 2017 for gross negligence in failing to keep her security credentials safe, particularly given explicit warnings on every OTP message not to share the codes. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Under Payment Services Regulations 2017, Mrs N is liable for authorized payments and SendWave is liable for unauthorized payments, unless Mrs N failed to keep security credentials safe with intent or gross negligence. The ombudsman found that without the scammers having access to OTPs sent to Mrs N's registered mobile number, the payment could not have been made. Despite Mrs N's consistent denial of sharing OTPs, the ombudsman concluded on balance of probabilities that she likely disclosed them during the scam call after being tricked. The ombudsman found no plausible alternative explanation and noted that Mrs N failed to heed the explicit warning on every OTP message not to share the code with anyone. Therefore, Mrs N is liable for gross negligence in failing to keep her security credentials safe.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website