Stay safe from fraud

By
on
June 14, 2021

Each year, the UK’s Citizens Advice runs a Scams Awareness Month campaign to inform people of the different scams happening out there, how to stay safe and what to do if you do happen to fall for a fraud scheme. This year’s campaign takes place from 14–27 June.

Common scams you could face

Keeping you aware of the different types of fraud making the rounds is important to us too. We like to take every opportunity we can to educate you so that you, your money and your account stay protected.

The pandemic made way for several scams to thrive as fraudsters took advantage of the most vulnerable people affected by Covid-19. And they’re still going on.

Here we talk you through some of the most recent scams still making the rounds:

APP fraud

Also known as Authorised Pushed Payment fraud, this is when a scammer pretends to be a company or person you’re already familiar with or doing business with and tricks you into making a payment to their account. APP fraud can take many shapes and forms, from invoice to mandate scams.

Tips for staying safe:

  • Double-check payment information before sending money.
  • Transfer a small amount first and check payment has been received directly by the right party.
  • Make sure to call an official number to confirm any payment requests you receive via email.

Pension scams

This is a type of investment scam in which fraudsters may contact you via email, SMS, phone or even introduce themselves via a family or friend of yours who is also being scammed. They often offer free pension reviews, higher returns on your pension savings and use high-pressure sales tactics such as “limited-time offers”.

Tips for staying safe:

  • Don’t assume something is genuine just because a website or social media page looks real.
  • Always reject unexpected offers, especially if they’re coming out of the blue.
  • Don’t fall for pushy salespeople pressuring you to act fast.

Crypto scams

This is another type of investment scam that is popular on social media. You may notice criminals flooding the comments section of your favourite social network pretending to be successful crypto traders who can invest your money for high returns. Many scammers trying to lure you to their website are often phishing attempts to steal your information.

Tips for staying safe:

  • Don’t trust strangers you don’t know on social media — especially with your hard-earned money.
  • If something sounds too good to be true, remember that it probably is!
  • If you’re considering investing, always get independent advice first and do thorough research.

Romance fraud

This type of scam also happens a lot on social media and dating websites or apps. It’s when someone uses a fake profile to form a relationship with you, gain your trust and then ask for money or personal information from you to defraud you.

Tips for staying safe:

  • Avoid giving too much of your personal information (such as your full name, address and date of birth) to someone you’ve never met in person.
  • If you’re using an official dating website or app, stick to this form of communication only — many criminals will pressure you to take the conversation over to social media to avoid traces of them asking for money or personal information on the dating site.
  • Don’t let anyone guilt or pressure you into sending them money if you’ve never met in real life no matter how much you feel you trust them or believe their story.

Shopping fraud

This scam operates behind the anonymity of online and internet shopping. It can also take many forms including fake online shops, items not being received or getting goods that are different from what you ordered.

Tips for staying safe:

  • Always double-check the URL. Standard techniques used by criminals who want to send you to buy from a fake site include incorrect spelling, letters replaced by characters or numbers, special characters inserted, altered endings to URLs or adding an IP address.
  • Buy from reputable sites or authorised sellers listed on a major brand’s website.
  • Avoid bank transfer buying and search for secure checkout options like Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal or major card schemes like Mastercard, instead.

Delivery fraud

Fraudsters are taking advantage of all the confusion and uncertainty regarding new delivery fees following Brexit. Criminals are targeting recipients pretending to be from Royal Mail, Hermes, DPD and DHL with SMS messages asking them to pay for the release of parcels.

Tips for staying safe:

  • If you’re not sure about the fees you’re being charged, it’s best to call the courier company’s official number to check the charges and what you owe.
  • Remember that you’ll only ever receive an SMS from Royal Mail if you’ve opted in for the service.
  • If a parcel from Royal Mail couldn't be delivered to you, they’ll leave you a missed parcel slip to let you know.

Steps to take if you fall for a scam

Don’t be ashamed if you happen to fall for fraud as it’s much more common than you may think. Action Fraud reported £1.7 billion lost to scams in the last year, and UK’s National Cyber Security Centre’s Active Cyber Defence program said it mitigated more than 700,000 online scams last year. And while this number may seem high, it doesn’t include the number of scams that go unreported.

If you happen to fall for a scam, here’s what to do:

1. Lock your card

Do this immediately right from your app to avoid any further illegal use of your card or information.

2. Contact our Support team

Get in touch through our in-app chat or email us at fraudhelp@monese.com to let us know you’ve been a victim of fraud and provide us with the transaction details and information on what happened.

3. Report

Each country has its own official authority for reporting cybercrime and fraud — in the UK, for example, you can report your situation to Action Fraud. In the UK, you can also forward any text to SPAM (7726).

Resources

Keep in mind that the scams mentioned here are only a few of the many types of fraud out there. Criminals are crafty and part of their job is to come up with new and ingenious scams every day to rob innocent and vulnerable people of their money. Don’t let this be you. Stay up to date by watching the news, reading up on the latest scams on our blog or other resources like Citizens Advice, Take Five and Action Fraud.

If you’re from outside of the UK, we’ve gathered some other useful sites that may be more relevant for you:

Remember: stay vigilant, be skeptical and stay safe!

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Finding the right Monese plan for you
Company

Finding the right Monese plan for you

Some of our plans are getting a tune up - here’s all you need to know

If your plan is impacted by this change, you can find more information below. For a full rundown of our terms, please click here.

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At Monese, we are committed to delivering the best possible banking alternative, so that anyone across the UK and Europe can better manage their money, digitally. 

So, we’re making improvements to our plans to better tailor them to our customers' everyday needs. These changes will include updates to transfer limits, adjustments to fees, and tweaks to our free plan. 

As a part of this, we are enhancing our Classic plan to include our new Cashback offering. We are also introducing a new plan called Everyday, designed for those on our free plan who are looking to start using their Monese card more often. All our plans have a bunch of great ways to spend, send, and save your money - with options tailored for every need.

With these updates, we are confident that everyone will be able to find a plan that is right for them, and help them build a brighter financial future.

Read more below for some of our most commonly asked questions, and a full schedule of changes at the bottom.

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What are the main changes?

Monese plans now have four tiers: Pay As You Go, Everyday, Cashback, and Premium, so that you can find the right plan for your needs. 

For our current Simple users, the main update is just a simple name change, and slight updates to domestic transfer fees. We’re also making virtual cards free on all plans so that you can connect your account to your Apple or Google Wallet. 

For Classic users, you will start to see us refer to your plan as Cashback. We also have an exciting new way to help you save. You can read more below on changes to your particular plan.

We are also introducing a new tier, Everyday, designed for those using their Monese card regularly, rather than occasionally.

This means that there are more options for more people using Monese around the world.

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Why are we making these changes?
We’re all about making sure we deliver the best tools for you to manage your money, and based on how people are using Monese currently, we noticed that we needed to create some new options for our customers. 

It’s especially important that we provide an Everyday plan for customers who feel that £7.95 per month is a bit of a stretch, but want to start using Monese more regularly. 

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What is a Pay As You Go plan?

Pay As You Go does what it says on the tin. Previously known as the Simple plan, our Pay As You Go plan allows you to access Monese without a monthly fee. This allows customers starting out on Monese to get familiar with the app, and only pay for what they use. This plan is perfect for someone using their Monese card sporadically, or looking to explore their options in the app.

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What is included in the Everyday plan?

Our new Everyday plan has everything you need to get you started on your journey to a brighter financial future with Monese. This plan is designed to be a low cost, low commitment option for those looking to save on transfer limits, deposit fees and virtual cards - perfect for those always on the go. Everyday will also include Partner Cashback.

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What is the Cashback plan and why has my Classic plan changed?

For our Classic users, there won’t be a huge amount of change, aside from the inclusion of Cashback, a new way to earn as you spend every month, among other changes to:

  • FX and international transfer fees
  • Free transfer out limits
  • Cash top up limits

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You can read more in our schedule of changes below.

Plus, with Enhanced Cashback, you can earn up to ÂŁ2.50 per month on your everyday spend. This is on top of being able to access our regular partner Cashback.

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Will my Premium plan be changing?

For our current Premium plan users, nothing is changing. This is still the best plan for those using Monese as their primary account.

See below for the full details of what is changing in every plan

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Pay As You Go (previously Simple)

Monthly domestic transfers out (limit): Previously ÂŁ1 per transfer, Now ÂŁ1.29 per transfer

Debit Card Top Up Fee (%): Previously 1%, Now 2%

Card spend Abroad FX (%): Previously 2%, Now 3%

Virtual card order fee: Previously ÂŁ0.30, Now Free

Physical card order fee: ÂŁ4.95, now free with your first ÂŁ100 deposit

No other changes

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Cashback (previously Classic)

Free monthly domestic transfers out (limit): Previously 100, Now 10, ÂŁ1 after

Debit card top up fee (%): Previously free, now 1%

Cash top up fee (%): Previously ÂŁ400 free, now ÂŁ100 free, 3% after

ATM out fee (%): Previously ÂŁ500 free, now ÂŁ300 free, 2% after

No other changes

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Premium

No changes for existing customers

First physical card order fee: previously free, now ÂŁ4.95

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Cyber Monday: Things to remember
Security

Cyber Monday: Things to remember

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.

Introducing the new unlimited Monese Premium plan
Features

Introducing the new unlimited Monese Premium plan

We’re dedicated to providing next-generation financial services to everyone, which is why we offer a range of account options - to suit the various needs of our customers.

First and foremost, we cater to those who simply need a free, fully operational Monese account - one that offers all the essential features you’d expect of a standard bank account. Some of our customers, however, are more active than others, which is why our fixed-fee Plus plan is often a better choice - offering lower rates on currency conversions and cash top-ups.

Unmetered money management is cleared for launch

Now we’re introducing the unlimited Premium plan! Designed with the most heavy-duty Monesers in mind, we’re offering them this fantastic opportunity to enjoy the removal of all transactional fees of all kinds, providing a truly exceptional and frictionless mobile money management experience. For a fixed transparent monthly fee, we’re proud to offer Monese Premium - capping the cost of a completely unmetered financial service. Money management simply doesn’t get any better than this!

A fixed fee that’s simple and fair

The flat fee of £/€ 14.95 a month will allow for genuinely unlimited money management, offering you as many free ATM cash withdrawals as you like. You’ll also enjoy free foreign currency exchange at the wholesale rate, free cash top-ups and free instant card top-ups. You’ll also get a second account (either UK account or Euro IBAN, depending on your first account) and card at zero extra cost.

Make savings with every transaction

We can confidently recommend Monese Premium as the best personal finance solution for those who travel frequently - whether it’s for business or pleasure. If you’re travelling for 3 months around the globe, or spending two weeks on holiday with the family, there’s no reason to worry about restrictions on withdrawals or charges on exchange rates. Everything is included in the cost - making for a money management experience that is completely unlimited.

Compared to our own Starter plan you can expect to make considerable savings on cash top-ups (£10 on a £500 Post Office top-up). You can also expect to rack up significant savings if you’re making regular international money transfers on a frequent basis - these could be potentially huge savings when compared to many high street banks.

No strings, no hidden fees

Monese Premium comes with no strings attached - if you don’t use it for an entire month (and don’t have any money in it), you won’t even be charged the monthly fee and there are no penalties. And you can always downgrade your plan whenever you like, without having to commit for a minimum term.

In the Monese Premium plan, we believe we’re offering something truly unparalleled, that champions our core ideals and our dedication to providing the very best service at the lowest possible prices. Whatever pricing plan you’re on, we’ll always present our costs of service in way that is completely transparent and ethical - and this latest addition is no exception.

To compare our all of our plans, you can have a look at our pricing page here.