Not upheld: fraud reimbursement and scam liability complaint against TIDE PLATFORM LTD trading as TIDE

Decision detail

Summary

Mr S complained that TIDE failed to reimburse him for £4,000 lost to a scam in October 2021, where he authorised a payment to an individual for a debt collection service that was never provided. TIDE declined the fraud claim when Mr S raised it in January 2026. The ombudsman found that while firms may intervene in suspicious payments, TIDE was not at fault because the disputed payment was consistent with Mr S's normal spending patterns, was a single low-value transaction, and going to a new payee alone was not sufficiently concerning. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the legal starting position that a firm must process authorised payments in accordance with Payment Services Regulations. However, firms may intervene where there is a fraud risk. The ombudsman examined whether TIDE should have identified a fraud risk based on what it knew about Mr S and the disputed payment. The payment was not sufficiently unusual or suspicious compared to normal account activity, was a single relatively low-value transaction, had no concerning destination indicators, and going to a new payee alone is not unusual. Therefore, TIDE had insufficient grounds to think Mr S was at risk of financial harm from fraud.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website