Fraud comes in many forms, shapes, and sizes. For Ensignbus in Essex, the only solution is disabling Monzo and Revolut payments and reducing contactless mobile payment limits to 10 GBP. Unfortunately, fraudsters have it out for this bus company, highlighting the insecurity of traditional payment methods.
Ensignbus Takes A Hard Decision
It is not entirely uncommon to see fraud affect various companies and service providers. However, one would not necessarily expect it to impact a bus company in Essex significantly. The success of Ensignbus – traversing routes across Southend, Grays, and Tilbury – has suffered over 10,000 GBP in fraudulent losses. These issues can be traced back to contactless payments in the past three months, highlighting a severe problem.
An Ensignbus spokesperson explained:
“As part of ongoing contactless fraud/non-payment issues, a number of banks are now blocked on our ticket machines. The most common which may affect you are Revolut, ABN Amro and Monzo. If you use any of these, please use an alternative bank card or cash.”
It remains unclear how mobile contactless payments and online bank apps can contribute to such steep fraud numbers. Most of these solutions are secure and require a consumer’s presence to be used. Even so, Ensignbus has now banned Monzo and Revolut customers. All other mobile contactless payments are possible for up to 10 GBP. Whether that is sufficient to curb the fraud rates remains unclear.
Customers looking to purchase a season ticket will have to resort to other payment methods. Contactless purchases are no longer an option for such amounts, and Ensignbus has transitioned to a cash-only approach. For now, it remains uncertain whether this change is permanent or not. Curbing fraud is tricky, especially with so many digital payment solutions.