Woman ‘let down’ and ‘scared’ after Monzo impersonation scam left her with £6k loan which saw her credit score plummet

A young woman who fell victim to a Monzo impersonation scam said she felt “let down” and “scared” after she was left with a £6k loan which saw her credit score plummet.

Kelle Cowell, 25, who lives with her partner in Ashford, Kent, said she received a call from an unknown number in March 2024 where an individual claimed they were from Monzo and indicated a fraudster had gained access to her bank account, and she was urged to move her money to protect it.

Sending around £580 to what she thought was a secure account, Kelle, who works with a company selling timber buildings and runs her own body piercing business from home, was also told the hacker had tried to take out a loan in her name.

Kelle said she was told if she went through the loan application process, she could cancel their request herself, but a lump sum of £6,000 dropped into her account instead.

Panicked and realising she had fallen victim to a scam, Kelle informed Monzo immediately but the damage was done – and after investigating the matter, she said Monzo found her to be liable for the loan she mistakenly took out, and which she later believed the scammers would have tried to gain access to.

Kelle said the bank asked her to make repayments on the loan and her credit score plummeted due to those that were missed – but after two months of “stress”, she was able to send the lump sum back and it was closed by the bank.

Monzo recognised the time it took to resolve the issue and they apologised for any stress caused – and Kelle is now sharing her experience to warn others of clever and “scary” scams.

“It was so stressful the day it happened, I remember just sitting and sobbing my eyes out,” Kelle told PA Real Life.

“Everyone falls for a scam at some point and you expect it to be dealt with quite quickly, that just was not the case for what happened here.

“I felt let down, alone and scared as I was going up against a big corporation.”

On March 8 2024, Kelle said she received a call from an unknown number.

Applying for jobs at the time, she said she thought it could be a potential employer and answered – but the caller claimed they were from her bank, Monzo.

“They had my address and were able to confirm where I lived, and they said someone had got into my bank account,” she said.

“They said I needed to move the money in the account, which was around £580, in order to protect it.

“It completely disarmed me that they were able to confirm my personal details – I felt like I could trust them.”

Kelle said the individual on the phone talked her through the process of moving her money into a different bank account via the Monzo app.

After her funds were transferred, Kelle said she was told the hacker had also tried to take out a loan in her name.

She said she was told to follow the loan application process where she would be able to cancel their request herself.

“I followed everything they said on the phone, they were able to direct me through the loans where it said I was eligible for £6,000,” she said.

“From there, the money landed straight into my account.”

Suddenly feeling “weird”, she researched how someone can tell whether they are on the phone to Monzo – which is indicated in the banking app through the Call Status tool.

“I asked ‘are you sure you’re Monzo?’ and they hung up,” she said.

Panicked, Kelle realised she had been speaking with a scammer, she had lost the money she transferred and had taken out a loan in her name for the maximum amount.

She said she immediately contacted Monzo and her other banks to make them aware of what had happened.

“I went straight to Monzo and said ‘I don’t want this loan, you’re more than welcome to go and take it out of my account and clear it’,” she said.

Kelle said Monzo told her the case would be handed over to the bank’s fraud department and investigated.

She said two weeks passed and she was getting “worried” as the £6,000 loan was still sitting in her account.

“I went back to Monzo constantly to ask what was going on, I didn’t know what was happening,” she said.

“Eventually, they found I was liable for the loan and wanted me to make repayments.

“It was £150 a month and there was interest on the loan – I felt helpless.”

Kelle said she sought external advice from ActionFraud, the National Debtline, and the Financial Ombudsman Service.

“I was advised not to pay the loan back at all because once I pay for it, I’m liable for it,” she said.

As Kelle had technically missed repayments on the loan, she said her credit score plummeted from 995 to 637 – which was “really stressful”.

On May 27 however, Monzo were able to rectify the issue and Kelle said she could return the money, the loan was closed and her credit file was updated.

Kelle said she also received £890 from Monzo in total – which included the money she had been scammed out of, refunds in interest on the loan and a small fee of compensation.

“I’m glad things were resolved and I didn’t expect to get any money back,” she said.

“The scariest part of the scam is that they knew were I lived, they knew everything in my account – you feel vulnerable.”

A spokesperson for Monzo said: “We’re sorry our customer fell victim to impersonation fraud in March last year.

“Luckily they used our Call Status tool to identify that they were not on the phone to Monzo, preventing them from losing a larger amount to the scam.

“At the time we cancelled the loan they were tricked into applying for, paid back the interest and prevented any impact to their credit score.

“We recognise we should have resolved this quicker, and we apologise for any additional stress caused because of this.”