Monzo Fraud - any Advice

Lielie

I was recently a victim of fraud. It was so easy to open up a Monzo account within minutes I filled in the on line application, with a copy of my ID, and short video clip so they can match the face to the ID.  They have to do this to maintain to banking regulations .................but now the “Fraudsters have caught onto this”   My money was taken by someone who opened a Monzo bank account.  Due to this they were able to get all the relevant links sent via Monzo because of this.  I got a call from the “Fraud Department” asked me to go through a process, incoming call was from the number on the bank card.  Received Email with the Monzo details etc.  Everything seemed so legit. She was professional, calm, and never gave me reason to raise alarm bells. Never did I think I could be conned but sadly I did.  This person managed to go into my account and transfer four amounts out of my account and into theirs. (Monzo to Monzo)  All my savings gone and they didn’t even leave me with a pound.  I am a live in carer and have been working since the start of Covid in February.  It’s easy for people to say we have ourselves to Blame until it happens to you.  When you have been working non stop and get told there is fraudulent activity on your account.  Panic sets in!  It’s  been three weeks now since this happened and escalated to the Senior Fraud Department.  I am not sure what the outcome is going to be but just praying I have some joy.

Supersonos

Lielie said:

This person managed to go into my account and transfer four amounts out of my account and into theirs. (Monzo to Monzo)  

Sounds like this is nothing to do with Monzo or the way Monzo set-up their accounts.  How did they actually access your account?  It's not clear from your post.

As for the Monzo email, surely you checked the address is was sent from?  Because every message I've ever got from Monzo was from within the app itself.

DoaM

It is easy to spoof the Caller ID number to make it look like it is coming from your bank etc.

The more telling question is ... how did they know you had a Monzo account? Either this was done by someone known to you, or it's been a random call (one of thousands) and they've simply hit lucky in finding you have a Monzo account.

Ultimately though it's unlikely to be Monzo's fault - you've just been "socially engineered".

soolin

This is a well publicised and increasingly common scam it seems.

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/phones-telecoms-and-internet/advice-for-consumers/problems/tackling-nuisance-calls-and-messages/phone-spoof-scam

CardinalWolsey

A salutary lesson. For anyone else reading this though, never believe someone is who they say they are when they call you. Get them to prove it, without you giving them any information. Even better, ask them for a call reference and (if your bank) call back on the number printed on the back of your card, or via your mobile banking app. Double check you have a dialling tone if calling your bank via a landline (ensuring the other party has cleared the line).

I've had calls from my bank with regards to potential fraud whilst I've been away travelling the far east for work. Exhausted, wrong time zone, being woken in the middle of my night. I still carried out my identity checks though.

gettingtheresometime

CardinalWolsey said:

A salutary lesson. For anyone else reading this though, never believe someone is who they say they are when they call you. Get them to prove it, without you giving them any information. Even better, ask them for a call reference and (if your bank) call back on the number printed on the back of your card, or via your mobile banking app. Double check you have a dialling tone if calling your bank via a landline (ensuring the other party has cleared the line).

I've had calls from my bank with regards to potential fraud whilst I've been away travelling the far east for work. Exhausted, wrong time zone, being woken in the middle of my night. I still carried out my identity checks though.

I've always maintained that the banks could help reduce this sort of fraud by THEM answering a security question  that the customer has selected so carrying out the security checks in reverse if you like ...in fact when I've suggested it, the adviser has always thought it was a good idea but obviously not such a good idea that they have pushed it.
Personally if I get an unsolicited call from a financial institution I refuse to give them any details and will ring them back myself, ensuring I've researched the number myself.

DoaM

CardinalWolsey said:

A salutary lesson. For anyone else reading this though, never believe someone is who they say they are when they call you. Get them to prove it, without you giving them any information. Even better, ask them for a call reference and (if your bank) call back on the number printed on the back of your card, or via your mobile banking app. Double check you have a dialling tone if calling your bank via a landline (ensuring the other party has cleared the line).

I've had calls from my bank with regards to potential fraud whilst I've been away travelling the far east for work. Exhausted, wrong time zone, being woken in the middle of my night. I still carried out my identity checks though.

Better still, call from another line (e.g. mobile). A common scam method is for the scammer to keep the line open but play a dialling tone after the victim has hung up. The scammer hears them pressing buttons, plays a ringing tone and then answers pretending to be the bank ... ergo the victim thinks they've called the bank but it's still the same call as they received earlier.

CardinalWolsey

gettingtheresometime said:

CardinalWolsey said:

A salutary lesson. For anyone else reading this though, never believe someone is who they say they are when they call you. Get them to prove it, without you giving them any information. Even better, ask them for a call reference and (if your bank) call back on the number printed on the back of your card, or via your mobile banking app. Double check you have a dialling tone if calling your bank via a landline (ensuring the other party has cleared the line).

I've had calls from my bank with regards to potential fraud whilst I've been away travelling the far east for work. Exhausted, wrong time zone, being woken in the middle of my night. I still carried out my identity checks though.

I've always maintained that the banks could help reduce this sort of fraud by THEM answering a security question  that the customer has selected so carrying out the security checks in reverse if you like ...in fact when I've suggested it, the adviser has always thought it was a good idea but obviously not such a good idea that they have pushed it.
Personally if I get an unsolicited call from a financial institution I refuse to give them any details and will ring them back myself, ensuring I've researched the number myself.

I agree. It's my line of business and I've talked many a time about mutual authentication. Coming up with a consistent omni-channel solution that is simple to use and understand is the challenge.

Takmon

gettingtheresometime said:

CardinalWolsey said:

A salutary lesson. For anyone else reading this though, never believe someone is who they say they are when they call you. Get them to prove it, without you giving them any information. Even better, ask them for a call reference and (if your bank) call back on the number printed on the back of your card, or via your mobile banking app. Double check you have a dialling tone if calling your bank via a landline (ensuring the other party has cleared the line).

I've had calls from my bank with regards to potential fraud whilst I've been away travelling the far east for work. Exhausted, wrong time zone, being woken in the middle of my night. I still carried out my identity checks though.

I've always maintained that the banks could help reduce this sort of fraud by THEM answering a security question  that the customer has selected so carrying out the security checks in reverse if you like ...in fact when I've suggested it, the adviser has always thought it was a good idea but obviously not such a good idea that they have pushed it.
Personally if I get an unsolicited call from a financial institution I refuse to give them any details and will ring them back myself, ensuring I've researched the number myself.

That's a good idea but the only people who would ask the security question would be the ones who sensible enough to realise it is a scam call in the first place. 
People like the OP who are happy to give out all their personal information on the phone to someone claiming to be from the "fraud department" and then give them details from emails that allow the fraudster to access their account will not be intelligent enough to ask them the security question or would be easily tricked into thinking they have answered it.

Spank

They would be if the questions/answers had already been established when the account was set up. 

SnowTiger

A couple of fraud stories involving Monzo were recently highlighted by The Guardian.

As in the OPs' case, one of those mentioned in the article had money transferred from their Monzo account to another Monzo account: '...was pressuring me to act quickly. I then realised that £4,500 had been paid from my account into two different Monzo accounts.'

Both people mentioned in the article were (eventually) refunded by Monzo.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2020/jul/23/monzo-refund-cold-callers-bank-fraud:

£317m was lost by personal banking customers last year in similar scams, known as “authorised-push payment fraud”. Only 41% were refunded and, last week, the Lending Standards Board announced a review of the code amid complaints that signatory banks are failing to honour their commitment. Monzo has not yet signed up to the code, but says it is following the spirit of it.

It refunded JB and LB as soon as I questioned why they had been refused compensation. “We were already in the process of reviewing both cases,” it says. “Initially, we had declined, but senior colleagues looked at it again and decided to reverse this as they had been defrauded through no fault of their own.”