Consumer complaint received 2023-05-20
Company: Revolut Technologies Inc.
State: FL
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Beginning in XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, I was called by an individual, XXXX XXXX, ( who presented himself as a XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX employee in their High Risk Fraud Department. He had spoofed the banks number as it came up on my phone as XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. He stated that an individual had tried to withdraw {$20000.00} from my account as payment for construction work at my home and had I authorized this. I stated that I had not. He also stated that they had presented their drivers license with my information and their picture on it and had waited for a specific teller to do the transaction, allowing others to go ahead of them in line. He told me that they, the High Risk Fraud Banking team, were investigating this particular branch of the bank because there had been 46 cases of successful fraud totaling XXXX XXXX  in the last 9 months. He said that I would need to secure my funds immediately, as I was being targeted. He stated that he had been assigned to my case and would be there throughout the process. He told me that my money was insured up to a XXXX dollars and that any fees that I had would be reimbursed at the end of the process, He also told me the FBI and FTC were involved in this investigation into the inside job at XXXX XXXX XXXX  I left work in a panic and went to the bank, with him staying on the phone the entire time. After going into the bank at the fraudsters direction attempts to wire transfer {$20000.00} to a secure fund was unsuccessful. I then withdrew the money via cashiers check and deposited it into my credit union account, where it was then successfully wire to a fraudulent account. XXXX continued to contact me daily to expedite the securing of my funds. At his direction, I opened an account with Revolut into who the majority of the money transfers occurred after this. A substantial amount ( {$360000.00} ) of my combined retirement and savings was transferred into my Revolut account from XXXX throthe end of XXXX and in increments, converted into XXXX XXXX and transferred to 2 different people. In mid XXXX, a significant portion of the money had been transferred to the 1 person/ account that the fraudster had instructed me to add to my account. Only after multiple transfers had been made totaling approximately {$350000.00}, did Revolut give a generic warning asking about the nature of the transfers and asking for Bank statements and reasons for the transfers. At this point, the fraudster instructed me to add a second recipient to receive funds, which despite the warning and non- receipt of complete documentation from me, they allowed to happen ; hence a smaller amount of transfers went through with no further warnings from Revolut . At the beginning of XXXX, I did not hear from the fraudster for four days, and had difficulty getting in touch with him. He did not answer me through his email which he had provided so I attempted to contact him through the high risk fraud department at XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. It was then that I learned that there is no such thing as the high risk fraud department at XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX nor was they are in XXXX XXXX working there. This is when on XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX that I realized it was all a big scam and notified revolute that I had been scammed. They immediately closed down my account and initiated an investigation. As of this point, I still have not heard anything from them as they say that the investigation is ongoing, and their decision will be final when it happens. They tell me that any action on this issue will be dependent on their external partners which they refuse to name. They refunded XXXX for the Revolut account but I paid XXXX for the metal plan, which the fraudster had me open. That is all I have gotten back from them. I continue to stay in contact daily because as soon as I informed them of a scam, they immediately closed down my account and stated the reason is that it was used for fraudulent transactions, ( the wording on their website is somewhat accusatory towards the user of their services. ) I asked them not to delete anything and not to close down my account by XXXX XXXX like they said because this is an ongoing investigation as I have contacted XXXX XXXX XXXX sheriffs department, FBI, the FTC state attorneys office, XXXX, the IRS and now the consumer finance.gov site ; I dont know if they will close it or not on that date, as they are very noncommittal and evasive in their answers. I have since done my research and noted that revolute has an explosive number of fraudulent scams happening through its site being that it is easy to transfer money, domestically and internationally. I have downloaded and screenshot is all my information off the website in case I can not access it after the date that they said it will be unavailable. The fraudster managed to not get {$7000.00} which was the last amount of money in the Revolut account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation