'I had £8,000 stolen but Revolut won't refund it'

Deborah Wright was left devastated when she lost £8,000 of savings from her Revolut accounts to fraud in October.

She expected the electronic money firm to refund her but it refused. Other fraud victims have also had difficulty getting refunds from Revolut.

Unlike banks, Revolut is not signed up to a code that aims to reimburse customers for this type of fraud.

The firm said it looked at cases on an individual basis, and that it was sorry customers had been defrauded.

Deborah, a dog groomer in North Yorkshire, had given her Virgin Money bank details to a fraudulent website that she thought was legitimate while online shopping.

A few weeks later, the 55-year-old got a phone call from a man claiming to be from the Virgin Money fraud department.

The fraudster said her bank account was under attack, and persuaded her to download some software that allowed him to take control of her computer.

The fraudster, who kept reassuring her that she was safe, asked her about her other accounts, and got her to transfer money out of her 12 Revolut "vaults".

This included savings that had taken years to build up for her grandson, and for a holiday in the US.

She lost more than £8,000 from Revolut alone, along with funds from her Virgin Money account.

While this was happening, she got warnings from Revolut, but the fraudster did not give her time to read them. He knew they were coming, and told her he was sending them.

"I was allowing everything to go through, just thinking it was safe," she said.

"I'm devastated. I'm wiped out," she told BBC Radio 4's You and Yours programme. "It's taken away my comfort blanket.

"It's made me angry because I've got to start again from scratch."

She questioned why Revolut had not stopped transactions that had not followed her normal behaviour patterns, as banks do.

Virgin Money is still investigating what happened.

Deborah was a victim of what is known as an "authorised push payment fraud". This is when fraudsters persuade their victims to send money themselves.

About 10 High Street banks are signed up to a code - the Contingent Reimbursement Model Code - which aims to give money back to people who fall victim to this kind of scam.

But Revolut is not a UK bank, and is not signed up to this code.

It is an e-money company that offers digital banking services.

It does not have a UK banking licence. It applied for one in January 2021 but is still waiting for the outcome.

Another person who was scammed was Mark, who runs an art and graphics company in Brighton.

He too was called by fraudsters, who persuaded him to download desktop-sharing software that let them take control of his computer.

Mark went along with it, but then became suspicious. When he checked his Revolut app 10 minutes later, he realised nearly £56,000 had been stolen.

"My heart nearly stopped," he said.

He tried to get Revolut to stop the transaction, and thought the firm might protect him, but it didn't.

"I realised I am completely alone in this," he said.

Although Revolut has since said it will refund £30,000, he described the situation as "absolutely shocking".

"I can't trust them [Revolut]. I just feel ignored," he said.

The fraudsters persuaded both Deborah and Mark to download Anydesk software, which is legitimate.

Anydesk said people using its software for fraud were "immoral and unacceptable", and it urged users to "never share information with anyone they do not know or trust".

George, a project manager from Northampton, fell victim to a different kind of fraud.

In October he went on his stag night with friends in London.

He blacked out - police think his drink was probably spiked - and his phone and cards were stolen. The criminals then went on a spending spree.

They withdrew £3,000 from a bank machine, and in under four hours spent £17,500 in different shops on Regent Street.

When he contacted Revolut, he was refused a refund.

He said Revolut's view was that he either gave his PIN away or had done it himself, adding that the whole experience had left him "feeling very vulnerable".

Aaron Elliott-Gross, head of fraud and financial crime at Revolut, said the firm was "very sorry to hear that our customers were targeted by fraudsters and criminals".

Each reimbursement case is treated individually, he said, with Revolut looking at how effective its warnings were, along with the customer's behaviour, when making a decision.

Mark had been partially refunded because Revolut accepts that it "could have done more to warn Mark".

But Deborah was warned about her transactions, and there was no evidence criminals had accessed George's PIN, he said.

He added that in George's case, consumers using electronic wallets such as Apple Pay or Google Pay need to be aware that "your phone passcode can be compromised, it can be overseen". A phone can be used to make payments if the passcode is entered.

Deborah, Mark and George all said they could not contact Revolut by phone and could only speak to operatives over live chat.

Mr Elliott-Gross said the Revolut chat function was the most secure way customers could interact with the firm.

"Having a call centre isn't a silver bullet," he said.

For more on this story, listen to You and Yours on BBC Sounds.