Facebook Messenger Scam/Monzo Bank

jonesMUFCforever

David   -- this is going to hurt.

The money is gone you have been defrauded.
Monzo's systems will verify whether you bypassed the COP or not.
Whether they refund you or not I do not know - if you did bypass COP your chances are slim.

Good luck.

Jami74

I very nearly got caught out in a similar scam last year. I received a message via messenger from a relative saying she had a bill to pay urgently but couldn't get the money into her bank until tomorrow and could I transfer some money and she'd settle it with me tomorrow (or words to that effect). I was at work and busy and it was someone who I would do anything for. I finished what I was doing first which gave me enough time to realise that she would never ask for money via messenger and that she would not have a bill that was so urgent it couldn't wait until I finished work, so instead I messaged her partner and found out that her Facebook was 'playing up' and she couldn't log in. Unfortunately someone did fall for it and transferred some money to which ever bank details the hacker sent. I don't know if they contacted their bank, but I imagine by the time they realised it was a scam the money would have been gone. The message had been sent to everyone in her contacts list.

It's a really horrible scam. If a request for money comes from someone you are close to then you want to help. OP, you are probably not going to get your money back, you willing transferred money into another account and probably ticked a box at some point saying you knew who you were sending it to and it wasn't a scam.

DCFC79

Davidnotmark said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

5. OP is in on the whole thing and this entire thread is set up to either provide contextual evidence to the bank, or to draw challenges from other posters to help how rehearse responses to similar challenges from the bank.

However, my money's on 1 or 2.

Im in on the whole thing? I've come here to try and find out some information and to ask for help because I've been conned out of a lot of money - like anyone would do. Thanks for helping to turn an already terrific week into an abysmal one.

Monzo will be looking at all scenarios then decide if they believe your series of events.

whitesmith

If you set up a brand new payee on Monzo, then you would have had to input the name if the payee (your niece's name). Monzo would have checked, and then informed you that this account you are trying to send money to was not in that name. At this point, you are warned, and then asked to cancel, or proceed anyway knowing the account names do not match. What did you do in response to this message?

soolin

This used to be a popular scam on students doing a gap year or just generally travelling. They mentioned their plans or their excitement at going to backpack around Australia or wherever on facebook and then get hacked. Message would be sent to parents, or relatives friends etc saying they were stuck somewhere and had lost their phone and needed £500 to get a new passport and phone - and could money be wired to xx. 

That scam has to be at least 10 years old. As long ago as 8 years back when my son did voluntary work in Africa we knew about the scam and had set up a code phrase for both his phone and all other messaging systems like facebook, unless he specifically asked about someone by name (we used the cat's name) then it wasn't him. So every message we ever got about anything asked about the cat!

The scam seems to have moved on now to facebook alone, perhaps because some people believe facebook is completely safe< I don't really know why it works. Unfortunately I echo the above, I can't see the bank taking responsibility at all for this , it is always worth trying them for a goodwill gesture, but there is no way of insisting funds are replaced.

[Deleted User]

Everyone reading this thread should ask themselves they following:

1. Have you got 2FA (two factor authentication) on your important social media and email accounts?
2. Have you got secure and different passwords (12 random characters) for all important social media and email accounts?

If the answer is no then do it now - it could save a lot of heartache and financial loss!

If we did, this type of scam would be much harder as it would be more difficult to impersonate somebody. 

Blackbeard_of_Perranporth

Even though some will have 2FA on the account, I only have to look at the gullibility of some of my FB fiends from yesterday, that are awaiting the delivery of the free chocolates, on a page that was created on 8th November 2020! My usual suspects were quick to add their comment! Now all the page creator has to is create a few fake accounts on the Facebook and say.

"Hi, It is BoP. I am in dire straits as my gas bill is due and I do not have the £300 to pay for. Now you know me and I will pay you back!"

Or even could be that you have been lucky enough to win the chocolates, but it is a cost of £9.99 for shipping! Please pay here! 30,000 comments. If only 0.5% respond, that is a nice £1,498. And that scam this morning is a cool £50 voucher for a coffee shop!

Pollycat

I got as far as the title.

Why do people trust Facebook?

Lots of threads on Consumer Rights that start "I bought...from Facebook..."

Eco_Miser

whitesmith said:

If you set up a brand new payee on Monzo, then you would have had to input the name if the payee (your niece's name). Monzo would have checked, and then informed you that this account you are trying to send money to was not in that name. At this point, you are warned, and then asked to cancel, or proceed anyway knowing the account names do not match. What did you do in response to this message?

Many names are not unique. The scammer could have set up a bank account in a common name, using genuine details, then sought out every person on Facebook with that name, including the OP's niece, done a little hacking and sent messages to everyone on all the contact lists.

If this speculation is anything like correct, there would have been no warning message.

Takmon

Eco_Miser said:

whitesmith said:

If you set up a brand new payee on Monzo, then you would have had to input the name if the payee (your niece's name). Monzo would have checked, and then informed you that this account you are trying to send money to was not in that name. At this point, you are warned, and then asked to cancel, or proceed anyway knowing the account names do not match. What did you do in response to this message?

Many names are not unique. The scammer could have set up a bank account in a common name, using genuine details, then sought out every person on Facebook with that name, including the OP's niece, done a little hacking and sent messages to everyone on all the contact lists.

If this speculation is anything like correct, there would have been no warning message.

It's not possible to hack into any Facebook account that someone chooses. If there was a vulnerability that allow accounts to be hacked then this would be effecting millions of accounts and it would be reported on the news like all big hacks. What has actually happened (like in most cases) is that the person will have been tricked into giving out their password in a phishing attempt.