Revolut
One of the biggest new players in the UK e-money scene is Revolut - with nearly five million customers. It says opening an account is easy, quick and paperless. And it boasts of ‘award-winning’ security systems. But Revolut customers told Watchdog that they’re experiences of the companies in-app warnings left a lot to be desired.
Chloe received three separate calls from people claiming to be from her credit card company, and other, main bank account. Somehow, they knew her security and transaction details . And they said her accounts were under attack from scammers.
Chloe told the programme:
“I started becoming a bit anxious. I've never been on call with so many banks in such a short amount of time. “
“ I'm getting married this year, in about six months time. And the majority of my savings are all in a bank.”
In total Chloe has thirty seven thousand pounds in savings. The caller claiming to be from her main savings bank told Chloe her money would be safer in her Revolut account, so she transferred it. But then she got another call. This time they claimed to be from Revolut itself, and said that account was now in danger too. Chloe was told to transfer the thirty seven thousand pounds to another, apparently safe account, in three separate transactions. And the scammer gave her the details. Chloe did receive in- app warning about new payees on her first transaction, but claimed that there were no more warnings when she made the larger transfer. She told us:
“Only the warnings were showing up for the first payment, because of me setting up a new beneficiary. I didn't get any other notifications, no calls.”
But with the thirty seven thousand pounds moved, the penny finally dropped that the callers themselves were the scammers.
“I remember I just dropped down on the floor. I was hyperventilating. All of that was taken away from me. That's when I actually learned that Revolut doesn't have call centre. So I had to go into the customer chat and message them.” Chloe told us
But Revolut refused to refund Chloe’s money, saying it had provided sufficient scam warnings, didn’t have reasonable grounds to believe the transactions were suspicious, and did all it could to recover her money. And Chloe isn’t the only person Watchdog has heard from who's been persuaded to transfer money into a Revolut account, and then on to scammers. But why Revolut?
Stuart McFadden is from a company who work with fraud victims to try to recover their money. He told the programme:
“What they'll often encourage people to do is send their money from their traditional bank account to Revolut. And then on to the fraudsters. A tradition bank might block that payment, put it on hold, call the customer and ask them what’s going on. But when Revolut does intervene they don’t really phone people, what they’ll often do is give an app warning. A lot of the time it’s not enough. However, if a bank calls you, it's pretty much always going to uncover the scam.”
Most UK retail banks are signed up to the CRM Code - a banking industry agreement to tackle this type of fraud. They commit to provide effective warnings, to delay payments while they investigate, and if the worst happens, to refund the customer. But Revolut aren’t a member.
In a statement Revolut told Watchdog:
- "Revolut takes the protection of its customers extremely seriously and is fully aware of the industry-wide risk of customers being coerced by organised criminals. We are very sorry to hear about Chloe’s case, or any instance where our customers are targeted by ruthless and highly sophisticated criminals.
- "Revolut is deeply concerned that large numbers of frauds are being enabled by criminals using fake social media adverts, fake texts and, as in Chloe’s case, fake and spoofed phone calls. Banks and financial institutions are often the last link in the fraud chain - and so by the time the customer is authorising the transfer, the fraud has already happened.
- "Revolut, and other financial services companies, work hard and invest heavily to protect and support customers, but as the Government’s new makes clear, it is also vital that criminals are stopped at the source, from using convincing-looking phone calls, texts and social media advertisements, otherwise they will only step up their efforts to trick people into handing over their money."
In-app warnings
- "New unskippable in-app warnings introduced last year, including social media style stories or those that involve customers interacting directly with a support agent, have significantly improved the protection Revolut offers its customers.
- "Today, more than 95% of customers who see these new and enhanced in-app warnings, which are targeted specifically to different types of fraud, realise they are potentially being scammed by criminals and cancel the transaction.
- "In Chloe’scase, Revolut’s anti-fraud system detected high risk transactions and intervened, with a standard new beneficiary warning, as well as our newer unskippable warnings
- "There is no evidence that phone line warnings are more effective at stopping fraud in comparison to in-app warnings."
In-app chat support
- "Our support is fast, secure, and loved by the overwhelming majority of our customers.
- "We offer support via our in-app chat because it’s the most secure method to communicate with customers. Speaking to us via chat means that our customers can be certain they are connected with a member of our team, rather than a caller who could be a scammer.
- "Complaints per customer are at an all-time low (fewer than 30 per 1m daily active users - 0.003%), and we were awarded the best customer support in financial services in November at the .
- "We listen to customer feedback and constantly evaluate the most effective ways to support our customers and keep them safe."
Reimbursement policy
- "Each fraud case is carefully investigated and assessed independently of other cases. The investigation considers information provided by the customer together with internal data held by Revolut. Each investigation involves multiple review stages and a final decision is made following this comprehensive assessment."
On how to stay safe from this kind of fraud
- "Revolut will never call you about your personal account without first contacting you via our in-app chat. Criminals use sophisticated techniques to build trust; calls can often appear to come from a number recognised as Revolut, a credit card company, or bank.
- "If you are a Revolut customer and think you may have been a victim of fraud, freeze your cards immediately in the Revolut app and contact Revolut for help via our secure in-app chat."
CRM Code
- "Revolut is not signed up to the Contingent Reimbursement Model but we apply similar standards when deciding to reimburse customers."
