Hey everyone, I just wanted to make everyone aware of a scam that I have become the victim to this week and also wonder if anyone has been in similar situations and got their money back?
I received a call on Thursday from the ‘Monzo Fraud Department’ whose phone number was 080080551281
It was a lady who introduced herself and appeared to already know all of my details. She informed me that there has been suspicious activity on my bank account and that someone has been attempting to make payments to skiddle and deliveroo, she said they tracked down the IP address of these attempted transactions and they was from Oxford, which has flagged up to them as they can see my payments are in Rochdale. She then asked me if I knew anyone in Oxford or if anyone has had access to my card or my details etc.
I then proceeded to open my Monzo banking app and could see that there was a pending Skiddle transaction for £78.50 and she informed me that I was able to cancel that from my end, which I did - I declined it.
She then told me she was going to send out a new bank card to my address but just needed me to confirm how much was in my account and if I had any pots for security, I told her my bank balance and informed her that I had no pots.
She asked me if she was sending the new card to my address - she knew my address and asked if this address was correct which i confirmed, I did not inform of her my address as she already knew it.
She then told me my card would take 7-10 working days but I could still access my funds through the app and Apple Pay. She told me she was going to update the Apple Pay on my phone as because the actual card would be blocked while I waited for a new one. It came through to my Monzo app and I accepted adding of the card to Apple Pay. It all seemed so legit, afterwards I even thanked her so much for helping me and told her how grateful I was. She seemed so professional, and I had no reason to doubt her as she was already aware of my details and I hadn’t given her any of my sensitive information.
The next day, a transaction came out of my account for £3246.74 at Apple, I froze with panic and was struggling to speak for a moment. I began to write to Monzo and then the money went back in (4 minutes later), I did not send my message to Monzo as I thought this was an error, as the money went straight back in. I then carried on my day as normal, relieved that the money had come in and that this must have been a mistake.
Tonight, a Monzo notification informed me that I had spent £2000 at Apple R226 White City. I told my partner and said, I bet it goes back in like it did yesterday. But it never did. I began to panic so much and contacted Monzo on the app, they told me that they hadn’t contacted me on Thursday and this would have been a phishing scam. I felt sick, I had a panic attack and threw up. I was shaking and in a very bad way. I realised that I had been scammed. I read about it online with tears in my eyes and was seeing that this is a common occurance and when the fraud victim is accepting the Apple Pay to be added to their phone - they are actually enabling the Apple Pay to the scammers phone so they are able to use their money.
I felt so stupid and ashamed of myself. I would never give my details away so I always thought of myself as immune to scams like this, I didn’t even know this was possible. All the notifications were coming through to my Monzo banking app whilst the scammer was on the phone to me, that is what made it look so legit.
I haven’t been able to eat tonight and it has really gotten to me. It’s my daughters 6th birthday tomorrow too so I’m trying my best to keep it together to not spoil her day. I honestly don’t know how I will sleep tonight too. I am just in shock that this has happened and I feel so stupid. It all just seemed so legit.
I wanted to warn everyone of this scam, as I am now aware that if Monzo suspected fraudulent activity on your account - then they would contact you via the app primarily. Please hang up if anyone calls you saying something similar and contact Monzo directly on their customer service chat and query it. I really don’t want anyone to experience what I have experienced tonight. I have been blaming myself and I actually hate myself because of it. It has really affected my self esteem and I feel like an idiot.
Does anyone know if I stand a chance at getting my money back? I really hope so. I have passed it on to the disputes team by clicking something is wrong on the transaction. I’m really hoping to god I can get it back. It has impacted me massively. And please everyone be vigilant
Update:
Monzo refunded my money within 24 hours after investigating the fraudulent activity. They were so amazing and I would like to thank everyone of the team who looked into this for me and helped me, especially Leon from the fraud team. Monzo were so helpful!
lesson learned and it was an awful experience!
but yeah I didn’t tell them any other details apart from my banks balance and that I had no pots, they already had everything else
