Key takeaway: When vetting a payment processor, ask directly about its merchant-screening standards and chargeback-monitoring thresholds. The FTC just showed what happens when those checks run too thin.
The FTC settled with payment processor Nuvei for $4.85 million on September 4, 2026, after alleging the company let known and repeat-offender scam merchants process payments without adequate screening.
The Federal Trade Commission announced a proposed settlement with Nuvei Corporation and several subsidiaries, requiring the payment processor to pay $4.85 million in consumer redress and overhaul its merchant screening and monitoring practices. The FTC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona and authorized by a 2-0 Commission vote, alleges Nuvei violated the FTC Act and the Telemarketing Sales Rule.
According to the FTC, Nuvei processed more than $30 million in consumer payments between 2017 and 2023 for Reimage, an offshore tech-support scam. The complaint further alleges that Nuvei, through its merchant acquiring bank registered in Cyprus, furnished Reimage and other overseas tech-support schemes with payment processing accounts that let them take credit card payments from consumers in the U.S. and elsewhere.
The agency also says Nuvei provided payment services to American Tax Service, accused of impersonating government agencies to sell tax-relief services and separately sued by the FTC and Nevada authorities in October 2025, and to DK Automation, accused of false earnings claims tied to Amazon and cryptocurrency schemes. The FTC further alleges Nuvei opened or kept open accounts for merchants already terminated by other processors over excessive chargebacks or fraud.
Under the proposed order, Nuvei must:
- Stop processing payments for telemarketed or pop-up tech-support offers
- Stop making false statements to obtain merchant accounts
- Stop load balancing and other tactics used to evade a bank’s fraud monitoring
- Screen and monitor clients on an ongoing basis, with heightened scrutiny for telemarketing merchants and accounts that exceed chargeback thresholds set in the order
“Today’s action underscores the Commission’s commitment to ensuring that our payments system operates free of fraud,” said Christopher Mufarrige, director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection.
For merchants, the case is a reminder that a payment processor’s compliance record can become your problem. A PSP under regulatory pressure for lax merchant vetting can face sudden changes to reserves, dispute handling, or account stability. The order’s focus on load balancing and chargeback-threshold gaming also signals regulators are watching the specific tactics some processors use to keep high-risk merchants under the radar.
Source: FTC press release; GRC Report
