Scammers took £10,000 from me and Monzo ignored me for FIVE weeks – it ruined my life

A business owner had £10,000 stolen from his business account by scammers posing as Monzo, and the challenger bank did not acknowledge the fraud for five weeks.

James – not his real name – opened a business account with Monzo early this year without complaint.

But in late June, he was contacted by scammers pretending to be from Monzo’s fraud department.

They told James to open his app because a £127 payment had been declined at Ikea and there were two pending payments of £5,000 and £4,900.

‘I was so shocked. They let me through security and apparently had all my details – and the number flashed up as being Monzo’s real number.’

Scammers often use a tactic called number spoofing where they change the caller ID to disguise their identity. To do this, they hide the identity or try to impersonate the number of a real company or person.

The scammers told James that they had managed to withhold payment to Ikea, but that payments of thousands of pounds to a data analytics company had to go through.

“They told me, ‘We want you to accept these payments and we can get the money back to you.’ I wasn’t sure but they assured me I would have the money back within 24 hours. I accepted, then I checked the app and there was no message from Monzo.”

At this point, James began to panic and began to question whether the call was legit. He called Monzo’s helpline 15 times to try and speak to an advisor, but they passed him on to the app.

‘I kept getting these automated messages. They said I couldn’t talk to anyone in the fraud department. After five weeks I’m finally through it.’

When Monzo first launched, it was heralded as a new way of banking. The automated messaging service should help customers quickly with their questions.

However, data from the Financial Ombudsman Service shows that fraud at neobanks like Monzo, Revolut and Starling reached an all-time high last year.

The FOS says the “vast majority” of these scams are authorized push payments (APP) – where scammers trick someone into transferring money to another account under false pretenses.

In James’ case, it involved approving payments to the data analytics company.

Automated messaging can be very useful, but as the case of James shows, it is useless if no one is on the other end of the line.

In cases of fraud, it is especially important for banks to talk to customers to get to the bottom of the matter and provide a reassuring voice.

James filed a complaint, which was acknowledged, but it is still unclear to him whether there is an internal investigation at the company or the scammers.

He said, “The problem is they never let me go to anyone to get an explanation. At least I’d know I was part of a scam.”

To make matters worse, James had to pay a tax bill, due at the end of July.

‘I couldn’t afford it, so I’m getting a fine (by HMRC) on top of it. It absolutely ruined my life.

“It’s the shock of it all, but the fact that Monzo doesn’t want to participate… I can’t get over it. The automated response is irritating because you’re in the dark. I would have preferred if they had given me an indication of what is going on.’

James has had to borrow money from relatives to stay afloat, but as a small business owner it’s a struggle.

When he contacted This Is Money, he said his business was on the verge of collapse as a result of the scam.

This Is Money approached Monzo to ask why it had taken so long to acknowledge and deal with James’ case.

They said they reiterated that James’s case was with the right team during this period. Customers can call the helpline, although in-app messaging is usually the quickest way to get in touch.

James has now been refunded the full amount the scammers paid and has been reimbursed £150 for waiting.

A spokesman for Monzo said: “We know that falling victim to fraud can be very distressing, so we are doing everything we can to resolve matters as quickly as possible.

‘While we realize that waiting can be frustrating, each case is assessed individually by a specialist team and some may take longer than others.

“In this case, it took longer than we would like to investigate and then refund the customer, so we compensated for the wait.”