Debit blitz lands traveller in trouble
WHEN a traveller heading for the Far East boarded his flight in London he had £4,000 in online accounts, but when he landed they were empty after a frenzied raid by scammers.
To his horror John Mathews saw a torrent of tiny debits, all about £4 and all from the same source, had cleaned him out. In one of the attacks, lasting just seven minutes, 450 transactions had gone through.
“I couldn’t even have typed my PIN in that fast, but they weren’t blocked,” he told Crusader.
The seafarer’s funds were in sterling and US dollar accounts with e-money firm Revolut.
After a fraught exchange of messages over the incident and debate as to who was at fault, John called us for help raising his plight with the payments provider then set about getting cover his stay.
Revolut responded immediately and refunded him within three days as a goodwill gesture.
Great for John who was delighted. But as we delved deeper into what went on, more emerged that hopefully can protect others in future.
While in the past malicious online adverts falsely posing as helplines have been a problem leading to fraudsters infiltrating accounts, this was not the matter in John’s case.
These debits appear to track back to a website with connections in Malta. They feature a link to legitimate video content services where viewers can pay to pin a comment on live streams.
When John had authorised payments to such a service a few months earlier, Revolut had flagged it with him twice to ensure he was happy to go ahead.
He responded confirming that he wished to continue. And it was this repeat consent that could have helped usher in the later flood of transactions. Others have voiced
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