Not upheld: scam reimbursement / fraud liability complaint against REMITLY U.K., LTD

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S complained that Remitly failed to reimburse £3,992 in scam payments he made in July 2025 to fraudsters via the platform. Remitly declined reimbursement on the basis that the payments were properly authorised and processed correctly. The ombudsman found that although firms must watch for fraud risk indicators, the disputed payments were not sufficiently unusual or suspicious compared to Mr S's established transaction history to warrant intervention. The payments were low-value, consistent with his prior activity including higher-value international transfers, and occurred without the exponential increase typical of fraud. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

While firms must look out for payments indicating customers are at risk of financial harm, they must balance intervention against inconveniencing legitimate requests. The disputed payments were not sufficiently unusual or suspicious compared to Mr S's normal activity to alert Remitly to fraud risk. The payments were low-value, consistent with his usual activity, occurred over a short period without exponential increase, and had no other obviously concerning features such as unusual destinations. Therefore, Remitly had no sufficient grounds to identify fraud risk and was entitled to process the authorised payments.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website