Monzo has introduced a trio of security controls to help customers diminish the prospect of fraudulent payments out of their accounts from phone theft, shoulder surfing or impersonation scams.
The controls, which are called Known Locations, Trusted Contacts and Secret QR codes, are opt-in for customers and will be rolled out over the coming weeks. Customers need to have at least two of these controls set up and can choose the limits at which each control is activated when making bank transfers or instant access savings withdrawals from pots.
For Known Locations, customers choose places like home or work that they need to be in when making bank transfers or savings withdrawals over their chosen limit. If they are outside of their chosen known location, the transfer will not complete.
Customers can also invite a trusted friend or family member who uses Monzo to help check whether a transaction over their chosen limit looks safe or is suspicious before they make the transfer or savings withdrawal.
Secret QR codes can be stored on a different device and must be used in parallel with the user's phone to approve a payment or savings withdrawal over their chosen limit.
Priyesh Patel, senior staff engineer at Monzo, says: “As fraudsters become more and more sophisticated we’re continuing to invest to outpace their tactics and keep our customers’ money safe. Whether it’s choosing your safety radius with Known Locations or having a trusted contact sense-check your payments before you make them, these features offer customers peace of mind and force a much-needed moment of pause in a high-stakes situation.”
The new controls follow the launch of Monzo’s Call Status tool that tackles impersonation scams by letting customers check in-app whether they’re on the phone to Monzo or not.
Patel says the Status tool has been used to report over 4,000 fraud attempts so far this year.