Dr Ravi Kumar, 53, an NHS consultant in intensive care medicine told how he was duped by an extremely clever scam that took £39,000 from his pocket. This happened in May after a call from someone who stated to be an American Express representative saying there was illegal activity on his credit card and asked him to transfer his savings to a Revolut account.
The scam picked up from here when he received a second call, again from Barclays, urging him to move his funds to Revolut for safekeeping while they “sorted” out the matter. Despite his initial skepticism, that number, he says, seemed to be Barclays’ official line, and he ended up transferring the funds. This was followed by the fact that scammers took advantage of his account after he had removed the Revolut app due to security concerns; meanwhile, a string of purchases were made without authorization for £39,000.
Then, he sought help from Revolut, but they rejected his claim to refund his amount, since the company claimed that Dr. Kumar had permitted all those transactions. Now, he is seeking legal aid to have a favorable verdict in his complaint against FOS. Since there is no concern from the side of the Revolut related to accountability and help over this case, Dr. Kumar is upset.
Cases of Fraud at Revolut Increase
He is one of more than 100 people who contacted this programme claiming to have been short-changed by Revolut following similar fraud cases. Despite the firm boasting nine million customers and reporting record profits of £438m earlier this year, Revolut is alleged in more reports of scams than any other big UK bank, an investigation by Panorama has found.
Experts say that an easy facility like Revolut makes it more susceptible to scammers. “The facility of having all the services integrated in one app makes it very vulnerable for cases of scams, as with this facility, a user could have his account hacked within minutes,” said Professor Mark Button of cybercrime research.
Increased Victims of Scams
Another victim, Lynne Elms, met a similar cruel fate with £160,000 taken from her employer’s cosmetics company in only seven minutes. A scammer impersonating Revolut blackmailed her into installing a remote desktop application that meant that a scammer could take control of her computer and sign off a succession of fraudulent transfers. Even though her employer incurred £70,000 in legal fees to recover the money, Revolut has objected to an investigator with the FOS proposals for a pay-out of £115,000.
Revolut’s Response
Revolut has also issued some public statements containing a sense of regret and disgust over the notion that customers sometimes fall as victims of fraud, though they cannot speak to matters under process. The organization claims to have reduced their fraudulent transactions by 20% last year and prevented around £475 million from supposed losses via fraud. Testimonies of Dr. Kumar and Lynne, however, highlight emotional and financial cost experienced during such incidents, with most claiming loss or betrayal feelings.
This goes on as the victims continue demanding justice, leading to all kinds of implications for the company, Revolut, and especially on its security measures, raising many questions about the effectiveness of sophisticated antidote protections in the digital finance space.
