{"id":500359,"date":"2026-06-15T07:20:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T07:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500359\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T07:20:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T07:20:08","slug":"revolut-sent-elaines-money-to-the-wrong-person-who-didnt-return-it-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/500359\/","title":{"rendered":"Revolut sent Elaine\u2019s money to the wrong person, who didn\u2019t return it \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Did you know that Revolut<\/a> might actively help you to send money to a random person who you\u2019ve never met and never had any interactions with and whose number you don\u2019t have stored in your phone \u2013 just because they happen to share a name with someone you actually do know?<\/p>\n

And did you know that if such a thing were to happen to you, you might never see that cash again unless the random stranger who Revolut suggested you send the money to agrees to give it back?<\/p>\n

It was certainly news to us, and we\u2019d still be in the dark about such a possibility were it not for a reader called Elaine.<\/p>\n

Late last month, Elaine sent a Revolut payment to cover her portion of a restaurant meal with a friend, and was less than pleased when it ended up in the hands of a completely different person. <\/p>\n

She had what can only be described as frustrating interactions over and back with the digital banking company, which ended when Revolut told her there was absolutely nothing it could do to get her money back. <\/p>\n

\u201cI was sending \u20ac120 in settlement to a person sitting across from me at a table in a restaurant on May 22nd,\u201d Elaine writes. <\/p>\n

She and her husband ate with a third person, a man. We probably don\u2019t need to tell you therefore that the third person was known to her, right? For the sake of completeness, we will make that clear. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Podcast: Scams target Revolut usersOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

This man was saved in her contacts by his name \u2013 and for the sake of this article we will call him Johnny S, although that is not actually his name. <\/p>\n

\u201cBefore sending, I told him I\u2019d text the word \u2018Revolut\u2019 to his number to be sure it was his, in case he might have changed it since I was in touch,\u201d Elaine writes. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe confirmed verbally that it was his number and I also got the blue tick marks to show he read it. After this I sent him \u20ac120,\u201d she continues. <\/p>\n

She and her husband left the restaurant and thought no more about it \u2013 at least until she heard back from Johnny S a couple of days later. <\/p>\n

He texted Elaine \u201cto say he never got the money\u201d.<\/p>\n

So where had it gone? <\/p>\n

Elaine did some digging, and quickly established that when she had gone into Revolut and started texting Johnny\u2019s name into the search space to find him as a contact, \u201cRevolut suggested their own Johnny S, not mine. In fact, my safe and \u2018saved\u2019 Johnny S didn\u2019t even appear in the screen; the only Johnny S that appeared in the search bar was \u2018their\u2019 Johnny S \u2013 a random person of that name who I don\u2019t know and have never met,\u201d Elaine says. <\/p>\n

\u2018Revolut\u2019s algorithm can and does \u201cleapfrog\u201d random Revolut account-holders with the same name \u2018over\u2019 your saved contacts\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Elaine to Revolut<\/p>\n

She recalls that when she started typing in the name \u201cJohnny\u201d, the first name she was prompted with was another contact whose name started with the same letter. \u201cSeeing that I knew that he was from my saved contacts, I had no reason to think that the Johnny S that then appeared was not from my saved list and he was the only Johnny S that was prompted,\u201d she continues. <\/p>\n

Elaine stresses \u2013 and this is probably important \u2013 that at no point was she given the choice of sending the cash to two Johnny Ss \u2013 the right one and the wrong one. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere were no red flags, and only one name appeared suggested by Revolut. No numbers showed up at all. Just names,\u201d she says. <\/p>\n

After finding out that the money had gone Awol, Elaine asked among her various WhatsApp groups about saved contacts being effectively ignored or not prompted by Revolut and random people with the same name coming up instead. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey have all told me that you cannot send money by Revolut to random Revolut account-holders who are not in your saved contacts. One software engineer I know said he has had to save people in his contacts first in order to send them money,\u201d she writes. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Cash is all but dead: How to navigate the complex world of virtual moneyOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She says her experience, \u201cone that is completely verified by my screenshots, shows that this is actually not the case. Revolut\u2019s algorithm can and does \u2018leapfrog\u2019 random Revolut account-holders with the same name \u2018over\u2019 your saved contacts.\u201d <\/p>\n

Obviously when she found out the cash had gone to the wrong Johnny S despite her best efforts, she contacted Revolut. She sent us some screenshots of the correspondence she received from its representatives and chatbots. <\/p>\n

\u201cI completely understand how frustrating this must be, sending \u20ac120 to the wrong person,\u201d she was told in one instance. The message from Revolut said this would be especially concerning as she had \u201ctrusted the suggested names in the app\u201d. She was told her concern \u201cis absolutely valid and I want to make sure we handle this properly\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u2018We take that feedback very seriously and I\u2019ve passed it on to help improve the app\u2019s design so this doesn\u2019t happen to others; however, that doesn\u2019t change the regulatory rules around the transfer itself\u2019<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Revolut response<\/p>\n

Another message told her \u201csuggested recipients can include Revolut friends, past recipients and people matched through details linked to a Revolut account such as a phone number, email or Revtag, so yes, two very similar Johnnies can appear separately even if only one is in your contacts\u201d.<\/p>\n

A third message accepted that she had done \u201cwhat any reasonable person would do. You checked your contact number, texted him to confirm and then sent the money through the app. The fact that your saved contact didn\u2019t appear and someone else\u2019s did is a legitimate concern and I\u2019ve noted your feedback, and your experience with us is truly important and we will do everything possible for our end to improve it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another message said it was possible for a suggestion to appear even if she never added the name and number to her contacts list, but it added that the sender \u201ccan\u2019t verify from here why that profile was ranked above your saved contact or why it appeared first in the suggestion\u201d.<\/p>\n

The communication continued. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know how incredibly frustrating this entire situation is,\u201d another bot said. \u201cWhen my colleague mentioned that your experience was a \u2018legitimate concern\u2019, they were referring to your feedback about how the app\u2019s contact search displayed the names. We take that feedback very seriously and I\u2019ve passed it on to help improve the app\u2019s design so this doesn\u2019t happen to others; however, that doesn\u2019t change the regulatory rules around the transfer itself.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upshot was that without the other Johnny\u2019s consent \u2013 the wrong Johnny S \u2013 Revolut couldn\u2019t get the money back, and it said it was not in a position to issue a refund directly.<\/p>\n

When Eileen searched for the person we have named as Johnny S, she was prompted by Revolut to send the money to another Johnny S who had that as his Revtag<\/p>\n

\u201cSince the recipient did not agree to return the funds during the six-day time-frame, we have sadly exhausted all the options available to us as a bank,\u201d the concluding message said. \u201cI know this isn\u2019t the outcome you were hoping [for],\u201d it added, saying that her \u201cbest next step to try and recover the funds is to file a report with An Garda S\u00edoch\u00e1na or to proceed with a formal complaint\u201d.<\/p>\n

By the time Elaine had decided to contact us, she had given up on a refund. \u201cThey have a six-day wait to see if the incorrect recipient returns the money. But they do nothing really. The person hasn\u2019t returned the money. Revolut bots do most of the communication, then it is handed over to a person (I dealt with five as I had to keep following up). They seem to work off what appears to me to be a script. I explained they ignored my safe, saved contacts and suggested an unknown Revolut account-holder, and this was shocking to me and it just shouldn\u2019t be that easy.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can only agree. <\/p>\n

We contacted Revolut and asked about Elaine\u2019s story to see whether someone might be able to explain why its systems had prompted a random Johnny S as the most likely recipient of her cash, rather than the Johnny S who was saved in her contacts. <\/p>\n

Pricewatch also went digging. We were able to establish that it is indeed possible for someone to save a contact, but be prompted to send the money to someone else in certain conditions. <\/p>\n

In this case, our reader saved her friend\u2019s full name which \u2013 coincidentally \u2013 happened to match the Revtag of a Revolut customer of the same name as her friend.<\/p>\n

Revtags are unique, customisable handles that Revolut customers can use to send and receive transfers without having to share personal details such as an Iban, account number and all the rest.<\/p>\n

So when Elaine searched for the person we have named as Johnny S, she was prompted by Revolut to send the money to another Johnny S who had that as his Revtag. We have seen screen grabs that suggest she would have been alerted to the fact that the Johnny S she was actually sending the cash to was not in her contacts, but it might easily be the kind of alert a normal person would miss if they knew the person they were sending the money to and if they were prompted with a matching name. <\/p>\n

Apparently this \u201cShow Revtag results\u201d step comes before any non-contact user is presented to a customer, and users such as Elaine need to explicitly click on \u201cShow Revtag results\u201d for non-contact users to appear. <\/p>\n

When we contacted Revolut about what happened, we were sent the following statement. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe advise all of our customers to take extra care and to ensure that they are making a payment to the person they are intending to at all times. This was a very rare instance. In recognition of this, we have made a goodwill payment of \u20ac120 to [our reader].\u201d<\/p>\n

It seems like the big winner here, however, is the wrong Johnny S \u2013 who got \u20ac120 for absolutely nothing. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Did you know that Revolut might actively help you to send money to a random person who you\u2019ve…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500360,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[72,943,61,60,9825,8581],"class_list":["post-500359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-cost-of-living","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pricewatch","tag-revolut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500359"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500359\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}