Not upheld: failure to prevent scam / refusal to refund scam losses complaint against Wise Payments Limited

Decision detail

Summary

Mr O complained that Wise failed to prevent him from losing over £6,000 to a scam involving a fraudulent immigration solicitor firm between July and December 2025. The payments were made through a combination of card payments and overseas transfers. The ombudsman found that the transactions were not sufficiently unusual or out of character to have triggered Wise's fraud monitoring systems, and therefore Wise had no obligation to intervene. The complaint was not upheld, and no refund was ordered. Recovery options such as chargeback and APP reimbursement were also found to be unavailable or unsuccessful.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Wise had a duty to monitor accounts for fraud and unusual transactions, but the payments in this case were not sufficiently unusual or out of character to trigger intervention. The transactions were small, spread over time, and did not indicate a scam pattern. Wise could not be held liable for failing to intervene when there was no obligation to do so. Additionally, recovery options such as chargeback or APP reimbursement were not available or would not have been successful given the nature of the payments.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website