Customer left feeling 'entirely responsible' after having £40,000 stolen from account in sophisticated scam

A victim of a sophisticated scam says they've had £40,000 ($50,000) emptied out of their business account.

That's according to a letter published in the Guardian, where the anonymous victim - referred to as 'LG' - says they declined a call from a hidden number while on holiday with no internet and poor mobile phone signal.

They recount accepting a call from their accountant asking them to pick up their phone to Revolut - the London-based finance technology company - because there were 'some suspicious attempts to access my account'.

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So, when the initial hidden number then called back - LG picked up, believing they were talking to Revolut.

The letter says they were even more convinced they were speaking to someone from Revolut's anti-fraud team because they quoted account details and previous transactions.

The letter reads: 'I was told they were contacting me as someone using a suspicious device was attempting to log into my account. After I confirmed it was not me, they said they would restrict access to my account. As part of a 'security check', they sent two verification codes, which I read back to them.'

These codes were then allegedly used to set up new payees in the victim's account - the scammers then made 38 withdrawals and cleaned out £40,000 ($50,000) 'in a matter of minutes'.

According to the letter, Revolut has refused to share the selfie they say was allegedly used to access the account. LG also notes that Revolut 'stopped trying to recover my funds after just 10 days' and that the Metropolitan police were reportedly conducting an investigation.

The Guardian's consumer issues journalist Miles Brignall notes that Revolut still doesn't have a UK banking licence, and isn't signed up to the contingent reimbursement model code (CRM code) - which he says is 'a voluntary code for banks and financial firms that outlines when defrauded customers should get back their cash'.

Brignall says he approached Revolut, who confirmed it wouldn't be refunding LG. He recommended LG took the matter to the Financial Ombudsman Service, and maybe even hiring a solicitor with their claim.

NurPhoto / Contributor / Getty

In a statement to UNILAD Tech, Revolut said: 'We are sorry to hear of any instance where our customers have been targeted by ruthless and sophisticated criminals. Each potential fraud case concerning a Revolut customer is carefully investigated and assessed independently of other cases.

'We take a data-driven approach to identify scam activity and use sophisticated fraud modelling for both inbound and outbound transactions to protect Revolut customers from falling victim to fraud. We constantly strengthen our fraud controls to stay one step ahead of new trends, including direct interventions and the sharing of educational materials with our customers so they are able to spot the social engineering tactics of criminals. Revolut will never phone you without first confirming via our secure in-app chat.

'We are aware that across the industry there has been an increase in advanced Account Takeover (ATO) scam attempts by criminals and are deeply concerned that large numbers of frauds are being enabled by criminals using fake and spoofed phone calls and SMS messages.'

To stay safe, Revolut made these recommendations:

· Never share your password, passcode, PIN, selfie, or one-time passcode (OTP) with anyone else, even if they claim to be from Revolut or another financial institution.

· If you receive an email asking you to confirm your device, when you haven’t added one or don’t recognise it, please ignore it and flag it as spam.

· Don't click on any links or buttons in an email like this, or forward it to anyone else.

· Never download remote access software to your device.

· Scammers will send fake emails asking for these things, or use your email address to fail a login attempt, so they can contact you imitating a financial institution, pretending to help ‘secure your account’.

Revolut added: 'If you think you have fallen victim to a scam, we advise you to freeze your cards immediately. Please update your Revolut passcode as well as any personal email account passwords, and contact Revolut customer support via our secure in-app chat.'