Modern online banking platform Revolut has issued a statement after one of its customers said they had £40,000 stolen from their account.
The customer also claims that they felt they were made to feel 'entirely responsible' for the incident, which is the latest in a number of similar crimes that have targeted Revolut customers.
More than 30 million people and businesses use Revolut for their banking needs, with services including debit and credit cards, crypto services, and currency exchange.
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The London neobank has now issued a warning and advice after one of its customers lost £40k in a sophisticated scam.
According to reports in The Guardian, the anonymous Revolut customer said they'd received a phone call from their accountant asking them to pick up the phone to Revolut because there had been 'some suspicious attempts to access their account'.
"When they called back, I answered, believing I was talking to Revolut’s anti-fraud staff, not least because the person had full access to my account details and was able to quote past transactions, even verification codes sent to confirm them," they said.
As part of a security check on their account, the people he believed to be from Revolut sent him two verification codes, which he said he'd read back to the individuals on the other end of the line.
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Unfortunately for them, it wasn't Revolut but a fraudster behind an elaborate scam to gain access to their account.
They went on to make 38 withdrawals from the business account, which the account holder said 'cleaned them out'.
"I did not hand over any personal login details to anyone, so I don’t understand how this happened," they said.
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"Revolut is refusing to share with me the selfie they say was allegedly used to access the account. They also stopped trying to recover my funds after just 10 days.
"I feel the company has held me entirely responsible for the fraud, without looking into its own role into how its systems were apparently overcome."
They added that the Metropolitan Police has launched an investigation.
When presented with the accusations, in a lengthy statement provided to LADbible, a spokesperson said: "We are sorry to hear of any instance where our customers have been targeted by ruthless and sophisticated criminals.
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"Each potential fraud case concerning a Revolut customer is carefully investigated and assessed independently of other cases.
"We take a data-driven approach to identify scam activity and use sophisticated fraud modelling for both inbound and outbound transactions to protect Revolut customers from falling victim to fraud.
"We constantly strengthen our fraud controls to stay one step ahead of new trends, including direct interventions and the sharing of educational materials with our customers so they are able to spot the social engineering tactics of criminals. Revolut will never phone you without first confirming via our secure in-app chat.
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"We are aware that across the industry there has been an increase in advanced Account Takeover (ATO) scam attempts by criminals and are deeply concerned that large numbers of frauds are being enabled by criminals using fake and spoofed phone calls and SMS messages."
Revolut encourages people to be vigilant and to look out for the following:
- Never share your password, passcode, PIN, selfie, or one-time passcode (OTP) with anyone else, even if they claim to be from Revolut or another financial institution.
- If you receive an email asking you to confirm your device, when you haven’t added one or don’t recognise it, please ignore it and flag it as spam.
- Don't click on any links or buttons in an email like this, or forward it to anyone else.
- Never download remote access software to your device.
- Scammers will send fake emails asking for these things, or use your email address to fail a login attempt, so they can contact you imitating a financial institution, pretending to help ‘secure your account’.
Revolut also says: "If you think you have fallen victim to a scam, we advise you to freeze your cards immediately.
"Please update your Revolut passcode as well as any personal email account passwords, and contact Revolut customer support via our secure in-app chat."
LADbible contacted the Met Police for comment.
Topics: Technology, Money, Crime, UK News
Tom Earnshaw