Fraudsters have developed a two-step tactic to fleece savers – as at least three customers of Revolut have discovered to their shocking cost.
The first case involved 26-year-old Alina Portnova, who was persuaded that her Barclays account was under threat from cyber crooks.
The thieves posed as bank security staff to persuade Alina to move her savings to her account with Revolut.
Step two of the scam came when she was told to move the money again, this time to a “safer” Revolut account which was in fact controlled by the fraudsters.
Revolut refunded the £5,672 she lost after I took her case up with them last summer.
Now I’ve heard from two other victims of the two-step scam.
Yue Yang banks with Lloyds and Revolut. The fraudsters began the scam with a message that purported to be from Lloyds warning of a suspicious transaction, followed by one on her Revolut app.
She was then called by one of the crooks using number spoofing software to make it appear as if he was phoning from Revolut’s anti-fraud department.
Yue was told to urgently move her savings from Lloyds to Revolut and then upgrade to a supposedly more secure account.
In reality, this meant transferring her savings of more than £40,000 to the crooks.
“The most concerning thing, which allowed fraudsters to credibly present themselves as Revolut staff, was that they communicated with me using the same SMS thread that Revolut had always communicated with,” said Yue, 26, who lives in London.
“There was no way for me to recognize that it was a fraud.
“I never authorised a transfer to someone else, even now on my Revolut app the transfer has my own name and my details.”
The third case concerns 34-year-old Priya Kapoor from Bristol, who banks with HSBC and Revolut.
A message warning of a supposed suspicious transaction was followed by calls apparently on bank numbers urging her to move her money from HSBC to Revolut.
Priya was then told to move it into a “safer” Revolut account that, like Yue, she thought was in her name.
She lost £21,000.
“Revolut claim I ticked a box asking if I trusted the beneficiary but I could only see my name as the recipient,” she said.
“Revolut claim that I knowingly added the fraudulent account name to my account payees, which is incorrect. If I had been asked to add an unknown name I would not have completed the transfer.”
Revolut has refused to reimburse Yue and Priya, insisting it “acted on the basis of best practice and that we are not liable for the transfers”.
So why did the fraudsters first ask the victims to move their money from their high street banks into accounts with Revolut before stealing it?
Revolut denies that it has more lax customer security, saying: “The root cause of the issue is that consumers override flags and warnings which are presented to them by all banks.”
The victims said the warnings they received did not include being told the names of the accounts to which their money was being transferred.
If they had been told the names, they say, they would not have moved the money.
Barclays has issued a warning about the two-step scam.
“This tactic can help the scammer to add a sense of urgency to the situation, to quickly move money from an account they pretend is at risk," it says.
“It can also make the initial request seem safer, or more credible, to send money to yourself or a friend or relative, before they request another transfer to the scammer’s account.
“Remember that no legitimate business or organisation will ever ask you to transfer money to a different provider before sending it to them, or to make payments to friends or relatives.”
Scams involving victims being tricked into unwittingly transferring money to crooks are known as authorised push-payment, or APP, frauds. From January to June last year, £355.3million was lost to APP fraud, up 71% on the previous year and out-stripping bank card fraud.
Nine banks, including Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds, have signed a voluntary code agreeing to reimburse victims of APP fraud – so long as the victims have not been negligent.
Revolut has not signed the code but says it follows industry standard customer protections.
Around half of all savings lost to APP fraud are never reimbursed.
Yesterday MPs on the Treasury Committee called for APP fraud refunds to be made compulsory. “We recommend that the Government urgently legislates to give the Payment Systems Regulator powers to make reimbursement mandatory, and that the PSR then take rapid action to protect consumers,” their report states.
Investigate@mirror.co.uk
