Hackers used Revolut to empty my bank
On the first of April 2021 my Revoult card, app and account had not been unused in a year. There was £350 on my card. That morning with my phone in my hand and my card locked in a draw someone somewhere changed my pin. They then emptied my bank ... Read more
On the first of April 2021 my Revoult card, app and account had not been unused in a year. There was £350 on my card. That morning with my phone in my hand and my card locked in a draw someone somewhere changed my pin. They then emptied my bank account into my Revoult account, then in one hour they pulled £6000 from various currency exchanges and cash withdrawals. My Bank spotted it and called me and I rushed to the Revolut app but they had changed my pin, no way in and no way to contact Revoult. I begged the assistant on their FB page to call someone, just to cancel my card at least but he would not.
They had hacked my email, forwarded one mail to themselves and that was all they needed, no card, no pin, no password. The string of physically impossible withdrawals my Bank saw in minutes and stopped on their end Revoult never spotted and my card remained active and my account working until a day and a half later when I convinced them to shut it all down. Despite two assistants being told in full what was happening in that time.
The attack came from inside the Revolut app. It wasn't just the pin. Even when I reset the password, did a selfy check, reinstalled the app. The app just went into loops until ultimately it was a black screen, and the only thing that the app had done since spring of 2020 was the update, the app requested the update and the update was from inside the app.
When I did regain access to the app the next day I spent hours explaining to them. They seemed reluctant to believe it had even happened. Eventually, they accepted that it was fraud and shut the app and card down to a blue screen saying they are looking into it with a chat option.
The attempted withdrawals started again about a week after the attack, I tried to tell Revolut on chat but their assistants, one after another ignored what I said and talked non sequitur gibberish. Taking sometimes half an hour, sometimes next day to give the same cut and paste answers over and over again to question I was not asking, ending with “goodbye” and “rate this chat”.
12 days after the attack. Now it's just a blue screen saying “we need some more information”. Chat says they don't need any information. I’ve no access to the money in their account until they open shop again.
15 days after the attack I received two android notifications from Revoult. The first that the top-up was attempted again. The second saying, “Your account has been deactivated. After reviewing your details, we’re sorry to say that we’re no longer able to offer you our services and we’ve made this decision to permanently close your account”
The Revolut app is still a blue screen saying “we need some more information.” But no one answers the chat anymore. I guess that's it.
In the end, the Revoult card was direct access to my bank account, they could never have gotten past my bank's security and into my account without it. Thank god I only had the one card linked to it and only £350 on the Revolult account itself. My bank stopped most of the money going out, cancelling the card before the hour was up and the next day refunded the £2700 they were too late to stop.
I put this here as a warning. I met a young Australian girl recently that said she had Revoult as her primary account, all her savings were on there. This was a nightmare, an attack that came from inside their app and almost took everything from me. Their response was silence for over two weeks then to permanently close my account taking my money and leaving no way to ever even contact them again.
Reviewed on 16th April 2021
Neil H
