Not upheld: Fraud reimbursement (APP scams) complaint against Rightcard Payment Services Limited trading as Lemfi

Decision detail

Summary

Mr D lost £754 to a scam in January 2026 when he made international payments believing they were for a legitimate job opportunity. He requested reimbursement from Lemfi, an electronic money institution, which refused. The ombudsman found the payments were authorised by Mr D despite his belief he was forced to make them, and therefore Lemfi was entitled to process them under Payment Services Regulations 2017. Although Lemfi should protect customers from fraud, the payments did not present sufficient fraud indicators to warrant intervention, as they were not unusual in value for an international payments specialist and the account was newly opened with no spending history. The complaint was not upheld.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

Although Mr D was victim of a scam, the payments were authorised by him as he was aware they were being sent to Kenya recipients and consented to the transactions. Under Payment Services Regulations 2017, Lemfi is expected to process authorised payments and the customer is presumed liable. The international payments fall outside the Faster Payments Scheme Reimbursement Rules. While Lemfi should protect customers from fraud, the individual transactions and their sum were not of sufficient value to raise suspicion in context of Lemfi's business specialising in international payments. The payments did not bear hallmarks of a scam that would have indicated fraud risk. A customer's payment reference is not a formal fraud protection measure. The newly opened account with no spending history meant there was no baseline to compare against. Lemfi's recovery attempts, though potentially slower, would not have succeeded given typical fraudster behaviour of moving funds quickly.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website