Revolut Launches ‘Street Mode’ to Keep Customer Funds Safe From Rise in Transfer Muggings This Festive Season

Revolut, the global fintech app with over 65 million customers globally, today announced the launch of Street Mode across the UK and the EEA. A new security feature designed to help protect customers from theft in instances of phone snatching and transfer mugging, Street Mode provides an additional and customisable layer of location-aware protection to funds when customers are on the go.

As the fraud landscape continues to evolve, the UK has seen a 425% rise in phone thefts since 2021. These kinds of incidents put people’s funds at risk as criminals aim to make transfers while the phone remains unlocked – in some cases forcing victims to complete required selfie checks before fleeing the scene, a phenomenon known as ‘transfer mugging’.

Street Mode is launching ahead of the busy shopping and holiday season, when crowded shopping streets and late night(s) provide extra opportunity to fraudsters. Once enabled, it will empower customers to define their own ‘Trusted Locations’, outside of which Street Mode will kick in and subject outgoing transfers above a certain limit to additional identification checks and a 1-hour delay. These protections create a critical window of time where fraudulent activity can be stopped by preventing customer funds from being transferred under duress.

Rami Kalai, Product Owner at Revolut said: “It’s vital that we stay on top of emerging threats to customer funds and transfer mugging is one that is rising across many cities and countries. Street Mode is a smart, location-aware shield that adapts to locations where customers need an extra level of protection and provides confidence on the go. Street Mode puts Revolut customers in control with extra layers of protection for their funds when they need it most.”

To enable Street Mode, Revolut customers should:

• Turn on Wealth Protection in the Security section of their profile

• Set transfer limit

• Toggle on Street Mode

• Set trusted locations – these can be added or removed at any time, for example hotels when travelling

Once enabled:

• Inside Trusted Locations: Customers can make transfers over a set limit with a phone identity check, which is processed immediately.

• Outside Trusted Locations: In addition to the initial phone identity check, transfers will be delayed by an hour and subject to an additional selfie check after this 1-hour window.

The launch of Street Mode is an expansion of Revolut’s Wealth Protection feature which launched last year, providing extra biometric identification to protect customers’ hard-earned savings from pickpockets and phone snatchers. Wealth Protection is one of a suite of sophisticated tools designed to safeguard Revolut customer funds. It has been enabled by over one million Revolut customers across Europe since launch.