Revolut scam: Hackers use institutional email to steal customer data: Police investigate

Revolut scam using a "government institutional email" to steal customer data: Postal Police are investigating. Hackers used a compromised email address belonging to an Italian institution to request and obtain customer data from the UK banking services company Revolut. The Postal Police are investigating for unauthorized access to a computer system and computer fraud.

Initially, the messages—which allegedly originated from a prefecture's institutional email address—didn't arouse suspicion in Revolut, which sent the requested data. The emails continued until the company finally decided to investigate and contacted the Italian institution directly, which denied being the source of the messages.

Investigations are underway to reconstruct the compromise of the email.

The bank issued a statement clarifying that customer funds were not compromised. "Revolut's systems and customer funds were untouched," a spokesperson for the fintech bank said after "identifying a sophisticated external impersonation scam, in which an unauthorized third party used an email address belonging to a legitimate government agency domain to submit fraudulent requests for information."

"As soon as we identified the fraud, we immediately blocked the address and notified the relevant government agency, as well as law enforcement authorities, data protection authorities, and financial supervisory authorities," the spokesperson explains. "We directly contacted the limited number of people involved to inform them of the incident and provide assistance," he adds.