How a Galway woman lost €10,000 in a ‘Revolut’ scam

Alice Coyle lost €10,000 in a matter of minutes in a scam carried out by someone purporting to be from the online bank Revolut.

Her ordeal started when the Galway woman got a text from what looked like Electric Ireland asking her for updated payment details.

Not long afterwards, she got a call from “Andrew” who said he was from Revolut, her online bank. He told her she was being scammed – and that’s when her nightmare began. Andrew wasn’t from Revolut, and he wasn’t her saviour, he was the scammer.

Alice, who is tech savvy and fraud aware, was caught out. And if she was caught, anyone could be, says Conor Pope, Irish Times Consumer Affairs Correspondent, who explains the scams to look out for – from ‘e-Flow’ to ‘Hey Mom’ – and what you should do if it happens to you.