Revolut named in more fraud complaints than any major UK bank, report finds

On-line financial institution Revolut has been named in additional fraud complaints than any main UK banks final yr, with some prospects questioning how a lot they have been shielded from scammers.

The monetary agency now faces questions over the effectiveness of its safety controls, based on a brand new report.

During the last yr, the UK’s reporting centre, Motion Fraud, acquired 9,793 experiences of fraud during which Revolut was named, based on a freedom of knowledge (FOI) request submitted by BBC Panorama.

This was about 2,000 greater than Barclays and Lloyds, and double the quantity which named Monzo, a digital financial institution with about 10 million UK prospects.

Revolut has greater than 9 million UK prospects and 45 million all over the world, however till not too long ago was nonetheless labeled as an digital cash establishment within the UK.

In July, it stated it had secured a banking licence within the UK after a three-year look ahead to approval.

It’s presently within the means of increase its banking operations and can finally be capable to maintain buyer deposits and provide lending merchandise like bank cards, private loans and mortgages.

Revolut stated it recognises {that a} “small quantity” of its prospects have had unfavorable experiences with the corporate, nevertheless it doesn’t imagine that to be the case for the “overwhelming majority of consumers who proceed to take pleasure in Revolut’s services”.

“Revolut takes fraud and the industry-wide threat of consumers being coerced by organised criminals extremely severely,” a spokesman stated.

However, one Revolut buyer advised the BBC he had £165,000 stolen from his enterprise account by fraudsters, after being tricked into sharing data and authorising funds to pretend accounts.

Jack, who didn’t want to give his surname, stated it took 23 minutes after contacting Revolut through its in-app chat perform to succeed in the proper division to freeze his account, throughout which era one other £67,000 was taken.

He stated he felt he was failed by the app’s programs, which didn’t robotically spot that numerous transactions to a brand new payee may have been suspicious exercise.

Rocio Concha, director of coverage and advocacy at client group Which?, stated the investigation means that “some banks and fee companies usually are not taking fraud severely sufficient”.

She stated the Authorities and regulators want to ensure each fee companies and on-line platforms put in place “significant measures” to guard customers from scammers.

Revolut not too long ago stated Fb and Instagram proprietor Meta was behind 62% of all scams reported to the agency over the primary half of 2024, and that it’s calling for the expertise big to share the reimbursement of fraud victims.

It additionally stated it prevented greater than £475 million value of potential fraud losses to its prospects globally in 2023.

“However, there’ll all the time be extra to do to sort out this multi-industry challenge and we’ll proceed to work in the direction of lowering fraud charges additional,” the spokesman stated.