Woman Loses £17,000 in Scam and Travels Across UK to Find Suspect
After losing thousands of pounds in a scam, Rhonda Montgomery described how she flew across the UK in an attempt to locate the fraudster responsible.
Rhonda lost £17,000 from her bank account after being contacted by scammers impersonating Revolut representatives.
Feeling both embarrassed and angry, she travelled hundreds of miles to confront the individual she believed had stolen her money.
Upon tracking down the address linked to the suspect, she went to the door to speak with the man she thought was responsible.
He was not present, but Rhonda spoke to his mother, who said he no longer lived there.
"My thought was: 'I'm just going to have to go after the money and take the chance to see how I get on'," she said.
"I worked hard for it, and nobody is helping me."
Scam Begins During Business Trip to Germany
The scam started while Rhonda was on a business trip in Germany.
She received a phone call from someone claiming to represent Revolut, warning her about suspicious payments leaving her account.
"They knew I was with Revolut. They had my details, they knew my name, they were fit to tell me the payments that went out of my account," she told BBC Spotlight NI.
"I sort of felt that nobody could know that information, only it was Revolut themselves."
Rhonda believed the issue was being handled by the bank and continued with her life.
About a week later, back home in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, she found herself unable to pay for a cup of coffee.
"I decided to go into my app to see what was going on, and I just got a massive shock," she said.
"There was over £8,000 [in] payments that were taken out through the night."
She then contacted the bank.
Revolut encourages customers to use an online chat forum to communicate with customer service agents.
After joining the online chat, Rhonda was told there would be a two-hour wait to reach the relevant team.
While waiting in the chat, she received a phone call from someone claiming to represent the bank.
This caller was able to provide her with personal details, including her date of birth and a list of payments she had queried in the chat.
"I was going to transfer just the money out into one of my other bank accounts," she said.
"They then talked me into using this temporary account because. [They said] 'If your phone's compromised, you know, your other accounts could be compromised'," she said.
"He set the account up live in front of me. I could actually see it being done on my desktop computer."
Revolut's Position and Details of the Scam
Spotlight was informed that Revolut's position is that Rhonda was persuaded to provide a code, allowing fraudsters to use her card.
Revolut maintains that its system was not accessed by fraudsters and that Rhonda received five phone alerts about suspicious transactions, four of which she recognized.
Importantly, Rhonda could see the name and address associated with the new account and took note of it.
When she questioned why the account was not registered in her name, she was told an "account manager" was handling her case on behalf of Revolut.
Convinced, she transferred the money to the new account, but the funds were never made available to her again.
Rhonda had fallen victim to an impersonation scam, where fraudsters pretend to be from a bank or financial institution.
Using personal information, they often convince victims to authorize payments to different accounts.
Expert Insight on Impersonation Scams
Chris Wynne, fraud and scam prevention manager at Danske Bank, explained that scammers often pose as fraud team members to obtain further information from customers.
"They gather the information beforehand to be more targeted," he said.
"We all use lots of websites to purchase things online and, to do those, we have to give all very legitimate firms our personal details.
"The trouble we have is whenever some of those firms have, for example, data breaches and our information is compromised, then that information becomes available on the dark web for scammers to get access to."
In 2023, over 34,000 impersonation scams were recorded in the UK, resulting in nearly £148 million in losses, according to the UK Finance Annual Fraud Report.
Rhonda Travels to Cambridge to Confront Suspect
Using the address she noted during the second scam call, Rhonda decided to fly to England to seek answers.
"I didn't really broadcast it or tell anybody what I was doing," she said.
She drove to the property in Cambridge linked to the new account.
When she knocked on the door, the man whose name was used on the account was not there.
Rhonda recorded a video of the interaction on her phone.
She explained she was in financial ruin due to the scam and that she "almost had a nervous breakdown".
She was told the man no longer lived at the address and was estranged from the family.
BBC Spotlight NI also attempted to contact him but was unsuccessful.
He has not responded to inquiries, so his exact role, if any, remains unknown.
Partial Recovery and Bank Response
Rhonda has recovered some of the fraudulent card payments, approximately £4,000.
After the BBC contacted Revolut, the company agreed to refund £9,000 that was sent directly to the fraudsters.
Revolut expressed regret over Rhonda's experience.
"Fraudsters are using increasingly sophisticated social engineering tactics to deceive customers, often impersonating trusted institutions to gain access to information and account," the company said.
"If you think you have fallen victim to a scam or you don't recognise an outgoing transaction on your account, we advise you to freeze your cards immediately, update your Revolut passcode as well as any personal email account passwords, and contact Revolut customer support."
If you have been affected by a scam or fraud, support is available on the BBC Actionline website.
