Fraud complaints about Revolut rise 146% in simply two years

Fraud reports mentioning online financial firm Revolut rose to almost 10,000 in 2023.

The number of fraud reports mentioning Revolut to scam reporting body Action Fraud jumped by 36 per cent to 9,793 in 2023, a Freedom of Information request has revealed.

A Money Mail and This is Money investigation last year revealed Revolut was being swamped by scams.

The number of fraud reports made to Action Fraud ballooned to 7,198 in 2022, up 81 per cent from 3,975 in 2021, data handed to us by Action Fraud showed.

Revolut clocked up 10,000 fraud reports in 2023, more than any other UK Bank 

At the time, that was the fourth highest figure for any firm offering current account-style services, trailing only Barclays, Lloyds and Santander, in 2022.

New data shows that in 2023, clocking up 9,793 fraud reports, Revolut received almost 2,000 more reports than Barclays – one of the UK’s biggest banks – and double that of digital bank Monzo.

High street giants such as Barclays received 7,874 fraud reports while Lloyds Bank received 7,395 and HSBC received 5,467 reports, according to the BBC FOI request.

Digital Banks Monzo and Starling received 4.803 and 1,029 fraud reports respectively.

Data from the Financial Ombudsman Services shows that Revolut received 2,446 complaints of 95,349 made to the FOS between July and December of 2023.

Revolut received a provisional banking licence from the Prudential Regulation Authority in July this year after a three-year wait.

It first applied for a licence from the Bank of England in 2021, to allow it to expand in the UK.

Revolut ran into problems throughout the application, including failing to publish its accounts on time two years in a row.

When Revolut’s 2021 accounts were finally published last March, they attracted intense scrutiny after auditor BDO said it was not able to independently verify three-quarters of its £636million revenue.

With a banking licence under its belt, Revolut would be allowed to offer customers new products, including mortgages – as it is set to do in Ireland – though there is no suggestion that this is currently on the cards in the UK.

A revolut spokesman said: ‘We are sorry to hear of any instance where our customers have been targeted by ruthless and sophisticated criminals. 

‘Revolut takes fraud and the industry-wide risk of customers being coerced by organised criminals, incredibly seriously.’

Tonight, Revolut is subject to a BBC Panorama programme titled: Britain’s Newest Bank: How safe is your money? which airs on BBC One at 8pm.