Revolut is launching in-app calls to enable customers to identify impersonation scams and make communication between customer support and account holders safer and more reliable.

Impersonation scams occur when a bad actor pretends to be a bank or other trusted authority and convinces a victim to share money or sensitive details.

The British challenger bank has been testing and developing in-app calls for a number of months, creating an app-native feature which it claims criminals can’t replicate.

Revolut said that the vast majority of calls being made from Revolut Customer Support to its retail customers will now be conducted in-app, with plans to roll out the feature to its business customers soon.

The move comes after Revolut’s fraud practices were brought under the spotlight last October when a BBC Panorama investigation found that the neobank was named in more fraud reports than any other UK bank over a 12-month period.

The broadcaster revealed figures it obtained from Action Fraud under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request which show that the bank was mentioned in 9,793 fraud reports. Revolut was mentioned in a significantly higher number of reports than the second most named bank, Barclays, which was involved in 7,874 cases.

The investigation followed the publication of data from the Financial Ombudsman which showed it had received 3,500 fraud complaints about Revolut in 2023, a number which outstripped all other UK banks.

Revolut claims that the number of impersonation claims affecting its customers are at their lowest levels in almost two years despite the company’s customer base growing by “tens of millions” of people. In 2023, Revolut said it prevented over £475 million in potential fraud against its customers.

The bank’s head of financial crime, Woody Malouf, said that impersonation scams can be a major hazard for many customers, adding that its new in-app calls are a way to prevent scams before any money changes hands.

“The vast majority of our calls to individuals will be through our app, so if you receive an unplanned call regarding your personal account from somebody claiming to be Revolut, put the phone down and check through the app that they are who they say they are,” he said. “Speaking to someone through our app means customers can be 100 per cent sure they are talking to Revolut and not a fraudster.”

In October last year Starling Bank launched an in-app tool designed to help its customers identify bank impersonation scams in what it claimed was an industry first.

The tool allows the customer to know if they are receiving a genuine call from Starling at that very moment.

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