Not upheld: unauthorized transactions / fraud claim complaint against MONZO BANK LIMITED

Decision detail

Summary

Ms H complained that Monzo refused to refund £245 in transactions she claimed were fraudulent and unauthorized. Monzo determined the transactions were made using Ms H's card details via Google Pay, which could only have been set up on her registered device via the Monzo app. The ombudsman found that adding the card to Google Pay required entering the card PIN and biometric approval, steps that could only have been completed by Ms H. Although Ms H maintained she did not authorize the transactions and may have been the victim of a scam, the ombudsman found no credible evidence of how an unauthorized party could have accessed her device and security details, and therefore concluded Ms H must have approved the card addition. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman applied the Payment Services Regulations 2017, which hold the customer responsible for authorized transactions. The key finding was that to add the card to Google Pay wallet, Ms H would have needed to enter her card PIN and use biometric approval via the Monzo app. Since only Ms H's registered device could access the Monzo app, and there was no credible evidence of malware, SIM swap, or Google account compromise, the ombudsman concluded Ms H must have approved the card addition, even if inadvertently or as part of a scam. Without evidence of how someone else could have accessed her device or security details, the ombudsman could not fairly conclude the transactions were unauthorized.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website