Revolut Blocks Millions In Fraudulent Crypto Transfers

According to Cointelegraph, cryptocurrency-friendly neobank Revolut has successfully prevented millions of dollars in potential customer losses from fraudulent crypto transfers over the past three months. On October 7, Revolut announced that it blocked up to $13.5 million worth of potentially fraudulent crypto transfers between June 1 and September 1, 2024. The company attributed this success to its enhanced crypto-specific security measures, which have significantly increased the amount of potential fraud it has prevented. Revolut estimated that it saved customers more than $590 million from potentially fraudulent transactions in 2023. Woody Malouf, the company’s head of financial crime and fraud, explained that these potential fraud cases include schemes such as celebrity endorsement scams, deepfakes, and artificial intelligence-generated scams. Malouf emphasized that Revolut takes security seriously, including in the realm of cryptocurrency. The company’s security measures include monitoring patterns of suspicious activity, two-factor authentication, and 24/7 support. Revolut’s cryptocurrency anti-fraud mechanism aims to protect investors by signaling potentially suspicious transactions to users. When customers initiate a crypto transfer, Revolut’s algorithms monitor the transfer in real time and provide in-app warnings if suspicious activity is detected. The system is designed to handle genuine transfers efficiently, with 92% of all crypto transactions completed without requiring additional information from the user. For the remaining 8%, additional reviews are necessary to ensure compliance with fraud prevention and Anti-Money Laundering regulations. Only 1 in 5,000 transfers leads to account closure after further review, which is less than 0.02%. Emil Urmanshin, director of crypto and new bets at Revolut, stated that the platform has been constantly fine-tuning its transfer process since launching crypto withdrawals and deposits. Revolut follows strict financial regulations to create a secure environment for all crypto transactions, starting from the moment customers sign up. This includes monitoring patterns in suspicious activity, identity checks, and two-factor authentication. Additionally, Revolut offers a biometric protection feature called “Wealth Protection,” which requires selfie verification for withdrawals and is disabled by default. Revolut’s latest update on crypto anti-fraud efforts came shortly after the company criticized Meta’s fraud prevention efforts and called on Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to share the cost of compensating fraud victims. Revolut argued that Meta platforms remain the main source of all scams reported to Revolut in the first quarter of 2024, accounting for 62%. Bloomberg reported in September that Revolut faced criticism in 2024 due to a surge in fraud complaints, with some investors suffering significant losses due to scams through their Revolut accounts. The Guardian also reported in April 2024 on an investor who lost 40,000 pounds ($52,300) on Revolut due to a scam, with Revolut rejecting a refund.