Reuters
People complain about poor treatment from Revolut after being cheated out of money deposited with e-money company
“I never imagined that I would be scammed,” says Dr. Ravi Kumar.
“But here I am, a 53-year-old NHS consultant in intensive care medicine and anesthesia, deeply affected.”
He lost £39,000 in May when scammers tricked him into transferring money to his Revolut account and giving them access.
He had saved money for his teenagers.
“I was very depressed,” he adds. “My children are too young to share this grief.”
Dr Kumar is one of around 100 people who told the BBC they felt badly treated by Revolut after being scammed, following a Panorama investigation into the e-money company.
For him, the deception began when he received a phone call from someone claiming to be from American Express, his credit card company. They told him that fraudulent activity had been detected on his account.
They said they would report it to the industry regulator and that he should expect another phone call from Barclays, his main bank, because money in that account could also be at risk.
A few hours later he received a call from someone saying they were from Barclays.
They told him to transfer his savings to his Revolut account to hold while they carried out the repairs.
He didn't do it. At this point, Dr. Kumar was becoming suspicious.
He wanted the person on the other end of the line to prove who they were.
He was given a number to call – and when he did, he heard a familiar welcome message from Barclays, which reassured him.
Dr Ravi Kumar lost £39,000 after a scammer convinced him to transfer money to Revolut.
But he was still the scammer on the phone.
They again asked him to transfer his money to Revolut as a safety precaution – and this time, Dr Kumar agreed.
After the transfer, the scammer asked her to create two virtual debit cards in the app for “testing” purposes and told her to delete the app to be safe.
Little did he know that this would allow them to spend thousands of euros from his account – without him receiving any notification.
The next morning, Dr Kumar reinstalled the Revolut app on his phone and found his account was drained of £39,000.
The 25 transactions made included purchases of luxury fashion and technology items from companies including Selfridges, Apple and Currys.
He contacted Revolut to complain, but they told him in a letter, seen by the BBC, that he would not be refunded because he had ultimately allowed the scammers to use the virtual debit cards.
Dr Kumar hired lawyers to submit his complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service (FOS), which resolves complaints between consumers and financial companies.
“I don't know how long I can pay for legal aid,” he says. “We canceled two public holidays, since then I have worked almost every Saturday.”
He added: “Even more disheartening than the financial loss is the indifference and lack of accountability shown by Revolut. »
“Its attraction could also be its weakness”
The e-money company, founded in 2015 by two former bankers, has nine million customers in the UK and last year announced record annual profits of £438 million.
Revolut has also been named in more fraud reports than any other major UK bank, according to figures collected last year by Action Fraud – the UK's national reporting center for fraud and cybercrime.
In Dr Kumar's case, the Revolut feature that allowed fraudsters to spend his money was the creation of virtual debit cards.
These work the same way as a physical debit card, except they only exist in the digital world.
They can offer customers more security as you can make purchases online without providing your main card details.
This is part of a list of features that some of Revolut's competitors don't offer.
Others include the ability to hold money in different currencies, transfer it overseas, buy individual stocks, invest in commodities, and access cryptocurrencies.
This range of features gives Revolut broad appeal – it describes itself as an “all-in-one financial app for your money” – but it’s also what cybersecurity experts warn is a weakness.
“It’s like putting all your eggs in one basket,” says cybercrime researcher Professor Mark Button.
“If you have a product that can be linked to all different aspects of your financial life and you're compromised by fraud or a scam, then that's very dangerous.”
Although Revolut offers many features, it lacks an emergency phone number you can call to freeze your account. You have to ask them using the chat feature of their app.
A dedicated phone number could have helped Lynne Elms stop fraudsters taking £160,000 in seven minutes from her employer.
“They were controlling my computer”
She was working at her best friend's cosmetics company in November 2022 when a scammer, claiming to be from Revolut, told her the company's account was being attacked by fraudsters.
They said it was an emergency and she needed to get the money out of the account as soon as possible or she risked losing it.
They convinced the 52-year-old to install a remote desktop app that they said would allow them to protect the account. This actually allowed them to take control of his computer.
For seven minutes, the scammers pressured Lynne into authorizing four transfers worth £160,000.
The accounts he was asked to transfer the money to had names like “refund,” “bill” and “cancellation.”
That meant she saw those words in the notifications sent to her phone asking her to approve the transfers.
Lynne Elms lost £160,000 in seven minutes when fraudsters took control of her computer
“Revolut was absolutely useless. It took me about three or four hours to get in touch with someone,” says Lynne.
“Eventually, Revolut froze the account. They told me there was nothing they could do. It was like a simple sentence to apologize.
His employer spent £70,000 on legal fees trying to get the money back.
An FOS investigator has recommended that at least £115,000 be refunded to them by Revolut, which disputes this sum. A final decision from the Ombudsman is expected soon.
Revolut told us it was unable to comment on ongoing matters with the FOS, but said it was “sorry to hear about any cases where our customers are being targeted by ruthless criminals and very sophisticated.
Addressing the fact that more than 100 people have contacted the BBC to complain about the company, Revolut said these issues should be raised through their app.
They add that last year the number of fraudulent transactions using their service was reduced by 20% and they avoided £475 million in potential losses due to fraud.
For victims who have lost money to Revolut scams, the impact goes beyond financial stress.
“I felt like I was losing my business and my best friend,” says Lynne. “It was the worst time of my life. I never thought I'd get over it. I don't think I did.
