A victim of fraud has said Revolut told him it was ‘his own fault’ and that he would not be reimbursed.

Scam text messages from fraudsters are on the rise and earlier this month Derek received a text purporting to be from An Post; the message said he owed money for a customs fee and he clicked on the link thinking it was in no way suspicious. 

An hour later, he received a phone call. 

“It was a guy telling me he was from EBS fraud squad and he told me my account had been hacked,” he told Lunchtime Live. 

“I questioned who he was at the time - although he was able to tell me my exact bank balance that was in the EBS and that gave me some comfort that he was legitimate. 

“He was telling me my funds weren’t safe in the EBS and that if I had a Revolut account, to move it over there.” 

Derek already had around €1,100 in his Revolut account and he then transferred a further €1,900. 

“Looking back, thank God the EBS froze my account at €1,900 because I could have ended up moving up a lot more over,” he said. 

“But he [the fraudster] had instructed me to delete the Revolut app on my phone, he told me it would reset the app and foolishly enough I deleted the app.” 

Derek downloaded the app again within a few minutes but by then €3,030 had vanished out of his account via Apple Pay. 

“When I got onto to Revolut, they were not one bit entertaining about it at all,” he said. 

“They accused me of authorising the payment - which is totally impossible because the app was deleted on my phone. 

“I don’t even have Apple Pay, I never did and all along they said it was my own fault that I authorised the payment and they were not going to reimburse me.” 

Revolut app logo. Image: Andrius Aleksandravicius / Alamy Stock Photo

Whereas Revolut have declined to reimburse him, by contrast Derek said ESB had been “fantastic” and have returned €1,900 to him. 

It is, consumer affairs expert Sinéad Ryan said, an example of the disadvantage of fintech. 

“It just shows you how sophisticated some of these scams have got,” she said. 

“Derek sounds like someone very sensible who is across his bank accounts, knows his balances and that wouldn’t be true of everybody. 

“These fraudsters, when they… find they make contact with somebody and can spin them a tale that sounds very plausible, sounds believable and then get them to action things that they want done, it really can be impossible to pull back at that stage. 

“I suppose in terms of the difference in terms of how the banks treat you, this is possibly one of the differences and drawbacks of the fintech. 

“Everyone loves the Revolut and they’re great and they’re fast and all that. 

“But they don’t have branches here; they’re not based here. There’s nowhere you can walk in and say, ‘Can I speak to somebody, something’s gone wrong.’ 

“The downside is it can be hard to get in touch with people and have that conversation compared to a regular street-based bank.” 

A Revolut Visa credit card and paper Euro money. Picture by: Mick Flynn / Alamy Stock Photo

In a statement to Lunchtime Live, Revolut said: 

“We are sorry that our customer was targeted by scammers. We take our responsibility to protect and support our customers extremely seriously and have made significant investments in our systems, processes and people to ensure that our customers are safe and supported.

“At present we offer support via in-app chat which is 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.

“If you are a Revolut customer and think you may have been a victim of fraud, freeze your cards immediately in the Revolut app and contact Revolut for help via the in-app chat.” 

Main image: Pile of new Revolut VISA debit cards placed on vibrant background. Selective focus. Stafford, United Kingdom, February 16, 2022.