Over the last 18 months, I have been contacted by dozens of Revolut customers who have fallen foul of sophisticated scammers, who employ a tactic known as Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud.
This sees fraudsters convince victims that their account has been compromised, and that they should move money to a “safe” account. Money can then be routed through a number of other accounts, including through Revolut, until it is deposited into one controlled by the fraudsters.
Many of the high street banks, including Revolut’s direct competitors, are signed up to the Contingent Reimbursement Model (CRM), which commits them to reimbursing customers.
Revolut, on the other hand, is not. As consumer journalists, we hope to occasionally convince a company that the initial decision that they made was wrong, and to secure a reader a refund, or some compensation.
But when I am contacted by Revolut customers about APP fraud, I hold out little hope for readers. The bank tells me it stopped more than £475m in fraud in 2023 and that it uses AI models to prevent harm to customers. It insists it takes fraud “incredibly seriously”, yet some customers are still losing out.
Until new regulations forcing institutions to refund victims in almost all cases come in later this year, there is little hope of compensation for Revolut customers.
Revolut is now advertising itself as the “Future of Money”. But as long as they are still leaving fraud victims in the lurch, they’re not the future for my money.
