Not upheld: scam and fraud claim; refund request complaint against Wise Payments Limited trading as Wise

Decision detail

Summary

Mr T complained that Wise should refund money he lost in a scam involving fake Certificate of Sponsorship arrangements. He made 13 payments between May and July 2025 funded by third-party credits. Wise recovered £10,410.60 through chargeback but Mr T sought refund of remaining payments. The ombudsman did not uphold the complaint, finding that Mr T did not suffer a financial loss as the funds belonged to third parties, that Mr T appeared to profit from some transactions, and that Mr T had circumvented his bank's fraud warnings to continue making payments despite scam concerns from third parties.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Mr T did not suffer a financial loss because all payments were funded by third-party credits, meaning the third parties suffered the loss, not Mr T. Additionally, messages between Mr T and X indicated Mr T received financial benefit on at least some transactions by charging third parties higher prices. Even if Wise should have intervened with warnings, Mr T had already received fraud warnings from his bank, which he deliberately circumvented by changing payment methods, and he continued payments despite clear scam concerns from third parties expressed in April 2025. Therefore, Wise cannot fairly be held liable for a refund.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website