A Revolut customer was left ’emotionally sick’ after his phone was stolen and the financial firm allowed the criminals to spend £56,000 on cryptocurrency and luxury goods.
The fraudsters attempted to make 28 different transactions totalling £100,000. Of those, only one – worth £5,690 – was picked up by Revolut. Fortunately, more were declined by the retailers.
Travel agency owner James Smith (not his real name), who is 53, then spent almost two weeks calling the app-based firm every day and trying to recover the money, but with no success. It was an experience which he says left him feeling ‘mentally and physically’ ill.
He has called on Revolut to ‘step up’ and make its systems more secure.
Out of pocket: Criminals stole one Revolut customer’s phone from out of his trouser pocket
It started when Smith had his mobile phone stolen from his pocket, as he attended the Royal Ascot races late last month.
Smith’s phone was stolen at around 5pm on 24 June, and his immediate concern was for the loss of the valuable gadget.
But just a few hours later, at 8pm, the thieves started taking money from his Revolut account, using his phone.
Somehow the criminals had managed to bypass all security features and were stealing money with impunity.
Smith immediately contacted Revolut, which he said reassured him it was looking into the fraud.
But thieves made £100,000 of transactions within ten hours, including buying cryptocurrency and making huge purchases at luxury brands Dior, Harrods and Burberry.
These transactions included purchases of up to £10,550 at Dior and £5,890 at Burberry.
Fortunately around half of the attempted £100,000 in transactions were declined by the luxury goods retailers.
However, the remaining purchases were still allowed to go out by Revolut and Smith was left around £56,000 out of pocket.
Revolut blocked Smith’s card at 12.25am on June 25. But by this point the damage had been done – and the criminals still managed to spend around £13,000 after the card was blocked.
The only attempted payment blocked by Revolut was £5,690, for high-end goods from Burberry.
Revolut requires customers to prove their identity for some large transactions via a message on their mobile phone – but as the fraudsters had his phone, it was no help.
‘My life changed,’ Smith said. ‘Revolut has failed to protect me. I initially went with Revolut because they make it very easy to spend money abroad, but they need to step up and make it more secure.
‘They should add not only a push notification, but you should be made to answer personal questions before a transaction can proceed.
‘I am emotionally sick. My blood pressure is off the roof and my heart is beating 130 times a minute. My mental and physical health is in decline – I can barely stand up.’
Banks take a patchwork approach when refunding victims of fraud.
If a customer has money stolen through no fault of their own, banks are obliged to give refunds.
But if a customer is tricked into losing money then only half of banks pay fraud refunds. This is a sticking point for victims of confidence tricksters – or those who have phones or laptops stolen and the banks believe they are partly to blame.
All Smith’s other bank and credit card firms blocked his cards immediately, including Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Chase, American Express and HSBC UK, and he lost no money from any of these accounts.
With more than £50,000 lost, Smith contacted Revolut staff every day for updates on his case.
But almost two weeks later, on July 6, Revolut staff told Smith they would need another 14 days to investigate.
Smith then contacted This is Money, who intervened on his behalf. Two days later, Revolut apologised and refunded Smith’s £56,000 in full.
We asked Revolut how this was able to happen, and how it would stop the same thing happening to other customers.
This post first appeared on Dailymail.co.uk
