A man who had £165,000 stolen from his Revolut business account by fraudsters has expressed his belief to BBC Panorama that the company’s security measures were inadequate in preventing the theft. The criminals were able to bypass the ID verification process to gain access to his account, and despite his pleas, Revolut has refused to refund the money.
Revolut, a digital-only financial institution, has faced more reports of fraud in the last financial year than major High Street banks. The company, which has not yet been fully licensed as a bank, claims to have strong controls in place to meet legal and regulatory requirements.
The man, referred to as Jack, runs an international business and was attracted to Revolut due to its quick account opening process and competitive foreign exchange rates. However, he fell victim to a scam where fraudsters tricked him into authorizing payments to their fake accounts.
Jack believes Revolut’s systems failed him in multiple ways, including allowing criminals to bypass facial-recognition software and not flagging the suspicious activity of multiple payments to new payees.
The BBC investigation found that Revolut was named in a significant number of fraud reports, with the company’s focus on growth potentially overshadowing efforts to prevent financial crime.
Revolut has stated that it has a “high performance culture” and has invested heavily in its financial crime prevention team. However, the company faces criticism for not reimbursing fraud victims and potentially facilitating fraudulent activity.
New rules now require all banks and electronic money institutions to reimburse victims of fraud, which could have significant financial implications for Revolut. The company claims to take fraud seriously and has implemented measures such as biometric identification and AI-scam detection to protect customers.