On 28th March I was at home when I noticed two active card checks on my personal current account from Ocado, which I didn’t do, so I froze the card. Within 10 minutes of this and me looking at the Monzo website for help, I received a call from a man saying that he was from Monzo and they’ve noticed a transaction from Portsmouth UK, but he knew that I was based in another UK location.
When I picked up the phone, I saw a payment notification for £12.99 on my flex account for Moonpig.com. He said this is the transaction they were querying. I asked him to prove that he was calling from Monzo, he directed me to Monzo website to show me the number that he was calling from, this matched the FSCS fraud insurance number on the Monzo website, 0800 678 1100. He then sent me a text message from Monzo, telling me that I would see that it was real because other Monzo messages would be in the same thread. I received the message from Monzo and in this thread were other Monzo messages I’d received over the months to do with setting up on Samsung pay, etc. The message contained a 6 digit security code and he asked me to confirm the last 2 digits of the code.
He stated that they would need to increase my security and move the bank account to a new one for security reasons. He asked me to check my accounts for other fraudulent activity, and he asked me to confirm the amount of my accounts for security and insurance reasons. He didn’t ask for my address or date of birth; he said new cards were being sent to me. He said I would need to go through more security to approve the new account and I was to approve a notification sent to my Monzo App with a code of ONSI.
I then noticed that a payment of £1,536 had come out of my Flex account for ONSI, I immediately flagged it and he tried to tell me that it wasn’t coming out, it was being moved to a new Monzo account but due to security it could only be so much at a time. He stated that I could talk to his supervisor or even call back but wait times were 60 minutes, he did everything he could to reassure me. I then questioned him when I noticed another approval for a transaction from wwwbenefithubcom, which I refused to do.
I told him that I was calling Monzo back and he then hung up. He sounded like an older English man, very well spoken. This is being investigated by Monzo. Just a heads up to hangup and always call back, I wish I did this and feel fooled and embarrassed.
First things first, don’t blame yourself. The days of “Ello, I can from bank” are long gone. This is sophisticated and they know the tricks to make themselves appear genuine. The transactions, the text codes, when you’re in a panic that your money is at risk, it’s easy to look back in hindsight and think you should have acted differently.
Many many people fall for these scams, you’re not the alone, if you have a look around you’ll see there are other threads with very similar themes but you’ll also see that people do tend to get their money back, so fingers crossed for you there!
Well that’s a refreshing change from your usual liar liar pants on fire replies to other scam victims. I like this revels more.
Sorry to read about what you’ve been through. I think it’s also worth referencing and highlighting this feature again. It thwarts these scams in their tracks, it’s just not very discoverable.
Hopefully Monzo can recover your money or reimburse you.
I generally think, on a customer forum, it’s best to assume everyone is this in the first instance:
Because we have absolutely no way of knowing with any degree of certainty whether they are
Or
Other than guessing, assuming, judging, and reading (perhaps too much) into tone and emotion.
I think compassion is always the best response. Even if the person you’re giving it to winds up being a liar liar pants on fire. Better that than deny it to someone who isn’t just because you think they are.
This is still ongoing. City of London Police reached out as they were approached by the German Police and were asked to gather information from myself and others. Its been 6 weeks with no decision from Monzo. I made a complaint to them but that complaint was not founded apparently. City of London Police have now filed a complaint to the financial obudsman on my behalf. Monzo customer service is shocking and appalling. Because the fraud was taken from my flex account, its now showing im in arrears and now affecting my credit report. I have never been late on any payments in my life. Monzo said they would delay the payments until an outcome but this hasnt happened and apparently this wasnt true. I can no longer use my flex account which I use in emergencies. I can’t sleep constantly thinking about bring tricked, the experience and how slow this is all taking, its affecting my mental health, marriage and life. I just want to not owe this money back and move on from a horrendous experience. I will be moving banks once i have an outcome. How long has it taken others to get a decision?
Now that Monzo have responded to your complaint, escalate it to the ombudsman yourself (I’m not entirely sure what happens if the police do it on your behalf, or what the process that follows is like). Based solely on the information you’ve shared, I don’t see them not upholding your complaint.
If the Ombudsmand upholds your complaint, Monzo will have to put things right, including correcting your credit file to reflect you never actually owed them anything.
The ombudsman is not a fast process, and all you can really do is wait, I’m afraid.
If you need some support with your mental health as a result of this, I’d start here with Mind:
Thank you. The Police have been very supportive and I was on the phone with them whilst they filed it. I cant fault them at all, monzo however are a disgrace. I really hope this doesnt take too long as this has effected me big time.