Not upheld: scam/fraud loss - refund claim complaint against NewDay Ltd (trading as Aqua)

Decision detail

Summary

Mrs S complained that Aqua should refund £900 she lost to a task-based job scam after making two authorised payments (£600 and £300) via a money transfer service in November 2025. Aqua declined to refund the loss, noting Mrs S had authorised the payments, though it attempted chargebacks which were unsuccessful and refunded £65.14 in interest charges. The ombudsman found the complaint not upheld, determining that Aqua had no obligation to intervene as the payments were authorised, of relatively low value, sent to a legitimate service, and displayed no obvious signs of fraud that would have warranted additional checks.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman considered whether Aqua should have intervened before processing the payments under regulatory rules, guidance, codes of practice and good industry practice including the Consumer Duty. The first payment of £600 was relatively low value and Mrs S had not held the account long enough to establish a pattern of normal usage. The second payment of £300 was half the value of the first and did not show the typical hallmark of increasing payment values. Both payments were authorised by Mrs S and sent to a legitimate money transfer service with no obvious signs indicating a scam. Therefore, Aqua had no reason to intervene and was not responsible for the loss.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website