Money Mules

Cyber Monday has arrived! And it is, as ever, a veritable behemoth of a worldwide sales event, bristling with bargains and a dizzying array of offers, all at low, low prices. It’s all too easy however to get a little disorientated by the mass-induced shopping frenzy, and perhaps a little careless in our singular pursuit of that must-have item we've seen online. This means we can often overlook, or ignore, the warning signs that what we're buying, and where we’re buying from, might not be all it seems.

With this in mind, we thought it would be helpful to list a few tips and tricks – as provided by our Fraud Team – that should help keep you stay safe during the Cyber Monday excess, and help keep your money protected from any dodgy deals. One smart way to stay protected while shopping online is to keep your device optimized and free from security vulnerabilities. Using a tool like CleanMyMac can help by removing junk files, clearing malicious threats, and ensuring your system runs smoothly while you browse. A cluttered or sluggish computer can slow you down and even make you more susceptible to scams, so giving your Mac a quick cleanup before diving into Cyber Monday deals is a simple but effective safety measure.

Lock down the URL

When inputting sensitive information, especially financial information on a purchasing page, make sure the URL starts with ‘https’. The ‘S’ means it’s secure.

Avoid bank transfer buying

Try to use trusted payment sources only. Professional merchants usually will have websites that support a variety of payment options. Fraudsters tend to prefer bank transfers.

Watch out for those ‘hidden’ subscription traps

Have you ever looked at your account to see a recurring charge that you didn't expect and didn't order? A subscription trap occurs when you're purchasing online and you're tricked into buying additional products or services that you don’t need. Many have been stung by these types of subscription traps. Over the coming days, check your balance very closely!

Protect your most valuable asset, your data

When making purchases online, think twice if you’re asked for additional personal and sensitive data. Are you being asked for ID, passport or driving licence numbers? Or even National Insurance numbers? These details are irrelevant to your purchase. Your identity could end up getting ‘stolen’ and used to commit unscrupulous things.

Beware fake “IT Support”

Some scammers can give the impression that the website you’re visiting has ‘frozen’ and urge you to call a support team to fix it. During the phone call, these scammers can masquerade as major computer companies and persuade you into believing that your computer is riddled with viruses. In reality it is not, and you’ve passed over sensitive information unnecessarily.

Buy from trusted sites only

Buying from third-party sellers, including some social media stores, offers no refund policies and are a haven for fraudsters looking to steal your money.

By keeping sight of these basic rules of engagement, there’s no reason why your Cyber Monday shopping bonanza – even if you’re just hunting for a great deal on a new phone – shouldn’t be an easy, secure and rewarding pre-Christmas indulgence.

You may think you’re already quite scam-savvy, but as technology advances and our digital footprints grow, there’s an ever-increasing number of ways that you can be targeted by fraudsters. Take this quick quiz to see how you fare faced with potential scams.

Thankfully, safety precautions and systems are only improving but we can all do our bit to ensure we stay alert. The national Take Five campaign actively encourages everyone to follow these three steps before making a payment or disclosing information:

STOP - Taking a moment to stop and think before parting with your money or information could keep you safe.

CHALLENGE - It’s ok to reject, refuse, or ignore any requests. Only criminals will try to rush or panic you.

PROTECT - Contact your bank immediately if you think you’ve fallen for a scam and report it to Action Fraud.

Remembering these action points keeps us fraud aware but what’s to be done when we come up against specific types of scams?

Over to our Head of Risk and Compliance, Colin Darby, and Chief Security Officer, Aneel Sandhu.

Aneel says,

“Only install apps on your phone from trusted sources, so on Apple devices that’s the App Store and on Android, only download from the Playstore. Downloading or installing apps straight from the internet could contain hidden malware that can be used to take over your banking apps, including Monese."

Colin says,

“According to the Annual Fraud Report, there’s been a spike in investment, delivery and purchase scams over the last year due to more people spending and shopping online from home. Look out for our in-app messaging that asks you to confirm you’re comfortable making these payments.”

You can read the full Annual Fraud report here.

Find out more about the Take Five campaign here.

Sign up to the Citizens Advice Bureau #ScamAware mailing list and encourage family and friends to do so too.

When you’re sending or waiting to receive money with us, you can usually expect it to arrive quickly. But sometimes, your transfer might take longer than normal to clear. This is something that comes up occasionally on our community channels, so we want to explain why your transfer may sometimes be delayed and what to do on the rare occasion this happens.

First, please know that our priority is always to protect you, your money and identity, so we follow a strict set of guidelines set out by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) and the National Bank of Belgium (NBB). Sometimes this can affect processing times for transfers.

How long will my transfer take?

Different types of transfers may take longer than others to clear. Here’s how long a transfer should normally take to process:

• Transfers between Monese accounts — instant each way (including on weekends)
• Local payments between your Monese GBP account and another UK account — we support UK Faster Payments, which should be instant each way (including on weekends); BACS payments will take 3 business days to receive, and CHAPS payments will arrive in your account on the same business day if they’re sent before 2pm
• SEPA payments between your Monese EUR account and another EUR account — next business day each way
• Local RON payments between your Monese RON account and another RON account — up to 1 business day each way
• International payments (from outside the EEA) to and from your Monese account – will depend on the country you’re receiving from or sending to

Bear in mind that when you’re sending or receiving transfers, the timings will also depend on the other bank’s or financial institution’s processing times (and, in some cases, additional checks on our end or theirs). Many types of transfers don’t get processed on weekends and public holidays, so plan for extra time if you’re making transfers on one of these days.

Why is my transfer pending?

When you have an outgoing transfer pending, you’ll see it in your transactions list in the app. This could mean that we may have to run a security check before processing the payment. We do this to make sure we’re keeping you and your money safe. Sometimes transfers can take time to settle as local receiving banks and financial institutions run their own checks too, which can also end up causing slight delays.

In the case of a security check from our end, we’ll reach out to you via email and may ask you for some details, such as the source of the money or reason for the transfer. Look out for our emails in your inbox — we’ll always contact you on the email address registered to your Monese account, and this is the email you should always use when communicating with us to speed things along.

To help us get your transfer on its way, get back to us with the requested information and supporting documents as soon as possible as a reply to that email (don’t start a new email or use a different email to get back to us as this will cause delays).

Why hasn’t my transfer arrived yet?

If you’re expecting a payment that’s taking longer than usual to appear in your account — which happens rarely — it could be because:

The payment wasn’t made correctly

When you’re sending money from an EEA country, always make sure it’s a SEPA payment, as you currently can’t send a SWIFT payment directly to your Monese account. SWIFT is an international payment network and a type of international transfer.

If you’re transferring money from a bank from outside the EEA, you’ll need to use different account details. You’ll need to add your Monese ID as a payment reference, otherwise we’ll have trouble finding your transfer. If you’ve accidentally sent a SWIFT payment directly to your personal account number, wait for the funds to bounce back (this usually happens automatically) and try again using SEPA or your international bank transfer details.

The wrong account details were used

You can find your account details directly in the app, right under the balance. If you believe you’ve entered the wrong account details, get in touch with our Support team through your Monese app and we’ll try to help you locate your transfer.

We don’t support the currency

We can only accept transfers in GBP, EUR and RON. So, if you accidentally send a payment in another currency to your Monese account, it’ll automatically bounce back to the sender’s account. Unfortunately, this could take a couple of weeks. We recommend contacting the sending bank and asking them to recall the transfer to help speed this up.

We have to run a security check

From time to time, we might need to run regular checks to make sure we comply with all the regulations. This doesn’t mean you’ve done anything wrong — we just want to do everything to make sure we’re keeping you and your money safe. When this happens, we’ll send you an email with questions and may ask for additional documents. Please get back to us as soon as possible to get the transfer going.

Transfers we don’t accept

Please note that we never accept some types of transfers, and these are any transactions related to adult entertainment or cryptocurrencies. Gambling transactions, for example, won’t go through if you’re in a country where it isn’t allowed. If you keep trying these sorts of transactions, you run the risk of having your account blocked or closed.

We hope this has helped you better understand some of the rules and regulations we follow, which are in place to protect you and ourselves from financial crime. At Monese, we're always working to stay ahead of criminals and illicit activity to ensure our customers' safety.

If you still have questions, get in touch with our Support team.