Major headaches with Revolut and N26 after phone got stolen

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dubliner8

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My phone was pickpocketed earlier this month and the person did multiple transactions through google pay using the phone. I had left all physical cards at home. I guess at the time I had a false sense of security with google pay and didn't think the pickpocket would be able to take money from me but in hindsight I realise it's not safe having payment apps etc on the phone that I walk around with.

The Garda dealing with the case has a suspect so hopefully they'll be caught.

Bank of Ireland refunded me all transactions done through my credit card, however Revolut is refusing to accept the transaction with them as fraud and so won't refund, and N26 were taking their time to come back to me on the transaction with their card and then suddenly last week they've blocked my account and won't discuss with me. I'm losing out on salary payments going in last week and this week and other money I had transferred in aside from the fraudulent transaction I was waiting on them to refund. There was nothing untoward to justify this so I am hoping they won't take months to come back to me like I have seen with other cases mentioned on Reddit.

This has been the worst I've ever had to deal with in terms of a mugging or whatever. I had never before had money taken through cards. Also the way these internet banks are behaving in such an uncooperative way is a wake up call. Whereas Bank of Ireland speedily refunded as they always do.

Has anyone had any dealings of this nature with the likes of Revolut and N26? I will most likely make complaints to the ombudsman but I don't hold out much hope for an acceptable resolution. In any case I'm going to switch most of my banking back to Irish based operators and will remove banking apps from my phone and only use physical cards as it seems like it is far too risky having them on the phone.
 
Did your phone have any basic entry security ? Or did they shoulder surf you for access ? I know it's a bit late but I only lkeep under €100 in the main accounts of rev and n26 and keep backup in voult/spaces.
 
Have you reported this to Revolut via form from at revolut.com/en-IE/about-fraud-and-scam/? Ask Revolut to start a chargeback process explaining your situation (help.revolut.com/help/card-payments-withdrawals/refunds/how-can-i-submit-chargeback/).
 
elcato said:
Did your phone have any basic entry security ? Or did they shoulder surf you for access ? I know it's a bit late but I only lkeep under €100 in the main accounts of rev and n26 and keep backup in voult/spaces.
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Yes I would have thought they would face having to use a pin for each of the transactions or at some point. Not sure if they looked at me entering my phone pin and other pins. I had top up as an option in Revolut and N26 from my credit card. I just do not trust google pay or banking apps now after this, I don't want to be faced with this again down the line.
 
I'm confused. They got entry into your apps having got entry into your phone ? Was your phone locked in the first place ? I don't use Google pay but do they not require you to put in a pin at opening ?
 
elcato said:
I'm confused. They got entry into your apps having got entry into your phone ? Was your phone locked in the first place ? I don't use Google pay but do they not require you to put in a pin at opening ?
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I don't know exactly how they got access. Google pay and perhaps forget password and code sent to email for one of the banking apps perhaps. I don't know if the phone was in locked state or unlocked when they took it. Perhaps they were quite sophisticated in what they could accomplish with getting past protections, I don't know.
 
dubliner8 said:
will remove banking apps from my phone and only use physical cards as it seems like it is far too risky having them on the phone.
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How much did they get?

google pay and apple pay much safer than cards. The merchant never gets your card number.

I would say that much more money is lost to "card" fraud than "phone card" fraud.

Key Post - How to keep your credit and debit cards secure

Would someone like to write a Key Post on the following Steps you can take to keep your credit and debit cards secure Brendan I've taken a stab at this. I've left it deliberately rough as I would welcome any feedback and suggestions and will edit it accordingly. Also, if anybody wanted to take...
www.askaboutmoney.com

The Basics - Your Devices
  • Keep your phone/computer software up to date. This includes the operating system, all apps and any security, anti-virus and anti-malware software
  • Switch on the highest level of security/authentication available on your phone, in particular; encrypt your phone, use facial or other biometric recognition and if only using passcodes change these from time to time
  • Switch on any in-app security available for banking and payment apps
  • When you are finished with a device that has been used for financial transactions, ensure that (1) the device is wiped prior to disposal and (2) that it is de-registered by the financial institutions and/or their applications
 
Start with some basics,
  • when did you report the phone stolen and when did you ask Revolut/N26 to freeze the cards/accounts?
    • Did transactions happen after this?
  • PIN is not required for low value transactions and is only required for higher values or where the banks algorythms flag something.
  • Was your PIN for the phone unique and not 0000 or 9999 or you DOB?
  • Did you use the same PIN for all your banking apps?
 
Airgunster said:
Have you reported this to Revolut via form from at revolut.com/en-IE/about-fraud-and-scam/? Ask Revolut to start a chargeback process explaining your situation (help.revolut.com/help/card-payments-withdrawals/refunds/how-can-i-submit-chargeback/).
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Yes have gone through the relevant channel for a chargeback and explained what happened. I even chatted to someone at Revolut for an hour and a half the day after. Also had to take selfies etc for them. But they have proved to be quite unsatisfactory in their response.

In reply to Brendan Burgess: they got nearly 500 aside from the phone itself and only a small portion of that has so far been refunded. Also now with my N26 account blocked I'm locked out of over an additional 1000. I'd say it is arguable whether google pay etc are safer than cards, at least if I carry one physical card I can block that card using a phone app later on and I will still have my other two cards at home. I have a second phone at home and plan on only having apps on this extra phone. With what has happened from just this one phone robbery I think I'm making the right decision to switch to one physical card and banking apps on the phone left at home/hotel/holiday apartment.

In response to thedaddyman: Bank of Ireland and Revolut blocked my card at the second attempted transaction on each - the amount was higher than the balance of each card, not sure re N26 but the balance was down to nearly zero. I made contact the same day with all three.
Pin for phone was unique and not 0000 or date of birth or anything and I had different pins for each banking app
 
OK. So the thief got access to Google pay and was able to change the card it used from boi to revelut and then n26 as the money ran out of each. Seems convenient to be able to do this but as we see here it's riskier.
 
elcato said:
OK. So the thief got access to Google pay and was able to change the card it used from boi to revelut and then n26 as the money ran out of each. Seems convenient to be able to do this but as we see here it's riskier.
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No I had the three cards in google pay, with top ups within Revolut and N26 possible from my credit card although they only did a top up with N26. So I guess they saw the three cards available in Google pay and were able to gain access to the N26 app for the top up there.
 
It doesn't sound as if this happened in your case though, so it's not particularly relevant.

But maybe you had no lock on your phone?

Brendan
 
Brendan Burgess said:
It doesn't sound as if this happened in your case though, so it's not particularly relevant.

But maybe you had no lock on your phone?

Brendan
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This is possible at the particular time the person swiped the phone away. The phone unlocking if it detected it on me. But not unlocking many times when I'd want it to. Not sure how that's supposed to work properly and the unreliable nature of that technology means a gap that pickpockets could potentially exploit. So I will narrow down my vulnerabilities as much as I can by not having stocks and shares or banking apps on the phone.
 
the unreliable nature of that technology means a gap that pickpockets could potentially exploit
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The unreliable nature of human beings leaves an insurmountable gap for them
 
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