Not upheld: fraud and scam - impersonation scam and refund claim complaint against PayrNet Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs K lost £1,677.37 when she provided her pre-paid card details to a scammer impersonating a legitimate travel agent to book flights for her father's funeral. The scammer used her card to make three payments to legitimate merchants for different purposes. Mrs K complained to PayrNet seeking a refund, arguing the payments should have been detected as fraudulent and that she was entitled to a chargeback refund. The ombudsman found the payments were authorised because Mrs K consented to a third party making payments using her card details, and there is no automatic right to refund for authorised payments lost to scams. PayrNet was not at fault for failing to detect the fraud or pursue chargebacks further.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that although Mrs K was the victim of fraud, the payments were authorised because she agreed to provide her card details for a third party to make payments on her behalf. The fact that she was deceived about the scammer's identity does not change whether she consented to the payments themselves. There is no automatic right to a refund for authorised payments lost as a result of a scam. PayrNet was not at fault for failing to detect the fraud as the payment amounts were not particularly suspicious and were made to legitimate merchants. Chargeback claims were unlikely to have succeeded because the merchants were legitimate and likely provided their goods or services to third parties.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website