Could a payment have been made by a family member or associate?¶

Yes. A family member, partner, employee, carer or associate may legitimately or improperly use another person’s payment account, card, wallet or device.

Avoid the dangerous assumption¶

The dangerous assumption is that the registered holder is the only person capable of making the payment.

Accounts may be shared informally.

Cards, passwords, PINs, devices and authentication methods may be known or accessible to others.

A family member may be authorised to make routine payments but not the disputed transaction.

An employee may operate a business account under delegated access.

An associate may also use the account without permission or under pressure.

Relevant evidence may include authorised-user records, joint-account status, additional cards, device registrations, login history, communications and the household or business context.

Look at who had physical access to the card or device, who knew the credentials and who could receive authentication codes or notifications.

Compare transaction times with location, work patterns, CCTV, messages and device use.

Do not assume that shared access means the holder had no knowledge.

Likewise, do not assume that the family relationship makes the activity authorised.

The precise scope of permission matters. Routine access to buy groceries or pay bills does not establish permission for an unrelated or high-value transfer.

Where several people use the same account, identify who created the beneficiary, authenticated the payment, received the notification and benefited from the transaction.

When reporting, distinguish account ownership, authorised access, actual use and knowledge.

Operational takeaway¶

Consider family or associate use whenever access was shared and establish the specific user, permission, knowledge and benefit through account, device and contextual evidence.