‘Sorry you lost the money’: Couple loses thousands of euro of wedding
savings in Revolut ‘ordeal’
Conor Pope
When Becca and Lucas woke up on the first morning of their sun holiday
shortly before Christmas their spirits were high.
Within minutes they were in the depths of despair after realising that
virtually their entire wedding fund had been drained from their Revolut
account as they slept.
Days of frustrating and confusing communications with the fintech
followed along with their own attempts to retrieve their money from a
merchant on the other side of the world.
At no point during the process were the distressed couple able to
actually talk to a human being working for the company where they had
stored their savings.
Becca was prompted to contact Pricewatch after reading other articles we
had written about Revolut customers who had fallen victim to scams.
“This morning my partner and I woke up on the first day of our holiday
and noticed nine transactions in US dollars amounting to $7648 (€6,989)
which emptied our account leaving only €400,” her mail started.
She said the transactions were in increasing amounts from $50 to $2000
before Revolut “finally froze the card at the $2500. This all happened
while we were asleep. The amounts all went to an unknown account.”
That account was in the name of a travel agency in Cambodia, she continued.
“We disputed the amounts with Revolut thinking this would be an easy
fix. Unfortunately, we were wrong and they refused a chargeback saying
that ‘the team was unable to find any traces of fraudulent activity
associated with these charges’. I am so gobsmacked by what has happened.
We can’t even get anyone on the phone,” she wrote.
The money, she continued, was in her partner’s account and was earmarked
for their wedding next October.
She said the first transaction was recorded at 1.32am on the day in
question with the 10th and last attempted transaction just five minutes
later.
She says they had spent hours on the day after they realised what had
happened sending messages to the company and not getting anywhere. “No
one will speak to us on the phone. They keep saying they are busy but
our case is their highest priority. They are saying that the transaction
was in person. We can easily prove we are on the other side of the world
but they won’t listen.”
After her first mail to us, the couple were able to establish what they
thought was the start of the problem.
They were waiting for a 24-hour delivery some days earlier and it had
already been delayed once. “I received a message saying they needed my
delivery details to be [updated]. I entered my phone number, address,
and name. No other details. So dumb I know,” she said.
“Obviously we now realise that it was our fault in sharing the delivery
details but even with this I would expect someone to talk to us on the
phone. It also doesn’t explain how [the criminals] used Apple Pay or got
the bank details,” she writes.
While trying to find someone in Revolut to talk to the couple
independently contacted the travel agency in Cambodia where the money
appeared to have gone.
In a message, the agency told them it had “spoken with our bank and
these funds have not yet arrived to our account. If they do clear we
will return the money. Our bank is aware of what has happened and will
liaise with the local police.”
The couple was also told that the “transactions were made with a phone
app by a guy in our office who purchased four expensive flights (now
cancelled) and some luxury items for his lady friend, which we hope to
recover.”
The agency then sent what it said was proof that it was trying to get
the money back but at the time of writing the couple had no joy.
So all that the couple was able to establish was that the transactions
appeared to have been carried out in person by someone who had access to
their Apple Pay details.
“I would certainly not be keeping large amounts of money with Revolut,”
Becca added. “[It is] refusing to help still and have concluded our case
closed.”
We contacted the company and received a statement. This is what it said:
“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 of [our reader’s] case or
any instance where our customers are targeted by ruthless and highly
sophisticated criminals. We urge customers to be vigilant.”
It then outlined steps people might take to keep themselves safe.
The statement warned people not to “provide your personal financial
details, one-time passwords (OTPs) and full PIN, password or passcode to
anyone else.”
It urged people to “beware of scam texts and spoof phone calls. Revolut
will never phone you with regards to your account security without first
confirming via our secure in-app chat. If in doubt, contact Revolut
directly using our in-app chat.”
The statement concluded by saying “Revolut, and other financial services
companies, work hard and invest heavily to protect and support
customers, but it is also vital that criminals are stopped at the
source, from using convincing-looking text messages, otherwise they will
only step up their efforts to trick people into handing over their money.
“Banks and financial service providers should be the last line of
defence against fraud, not the only line of defence.”
Separately the company suggested that the couple’s one time password
must have been compromised and pointed to its T&C’s which say that it
“won’t refund any money if you’ve acted fraudulently, or you
intentionally or carelessly failed to keep your security details or
Revolut Card safe. For example, we wouldn’t make a refund if you gave
someone your Revolut Card PIN and they made a payment using your card
without you knowing about it.”
When the full Revolut statement was shared with our reader she stressed
that no card details or codes had been shared with a third party and
only delivery address, name and email: “Their response to this was that
then we must have made the payments as the payment method is secure. Not
eligible for a refund. We then said that we weren’t aware of any codes
or card details shared but that it must have happened somehow.
“Their response to this was that we were not eligible for a refund
because we must have shared the code or card details. So no matter what
we tried to say their answer was always ‘no’ I want to add that during
this whole ordeal, Revolut has been by far the worst part. We can try
and move past the money but Revolut [has] made it so much worse. We have
had five ‘scheduled phone calls’ been told that the phone support are
busy but they will get back to us. We waited in the apartment for days
trying to sort this [out]. It felt like the whole time they were trying
to trick us into saying the wrong thing and to just put the blame on it.
No one ever called.”
We went back to Revolut with some follow-up questions. We asked why this
couple who have been the victim of a crime on the Revolut platform have
not been able to speak to anyone in Revolut and why no- one in the
company has spoken to them.
This is what Revolut came back with.
“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.
“We know that the most important thing for our customers is to resolve
issues quickly. Our chat system enables us to provide secure and direct
communication and to resolve matters efficiently for customers.
“We apologise to [our reader] for the level of customer service he has
received. We have issued a goodwill payment to the customer in
recognition of the fact that the support he has received has fallen
below our usual high standard of care.’”
The goodwill payment was for €150. Our readers told us they did not want it.
We also asked if Revolut was blaming its customer for being the victim
of a crime?
It said “our understanding is that the customer provided details that
allowed a third party to add a card into an Apple Pay wallet which
carried out the disputed transactions. Our view is that the customer
could have done more to protect those sensitive details. Customers are
explicitly told never to share one-time passwords (OTPs) with anyone else.”
She said that “as per Revolut’s T&C’s - ‘We won’t refund any money if
you’ve acted fraudulently, or you intentionally or carelessly failed to
keep your security details or Revolut Card safe (unless you told us
about this before the payment was taken from your account). For example,
we wouldn’t make a refund if you gave someone your Revolut Card PIN and
they made a payment using your card without you knowing about it.”
But we will give the last word to the victims of this crime.
“I don’t know how we can prove a one-time password was never shared but
it didn’t happen,” Becca says. “Perhaps if Lucas hands over his device
to someone and for them to look through it? Or if I can track someone
down who has received the same scam text message and to open it while
filming to look at how the scam works. If other people also swear they
didn’t share a code or card details then surely they have to look into
it. She stresses that “Lucas didn’t act fraudulently, intentionally or
carelessly. We have sent them a message rejecting the goodwill amount
and asked for them to take it back. She also notes that the most recent
message from Revolut said simply “Really sorry you lost the money”.
Irish Times
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