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Bank says it is urgently investigating after customers report seeing hundreds of pounds wiped from accounts
Thousands of Tesco Bank accounts have been compromised and customers have seen hundreds of pounds wiped from their balances in a wave of fraudulent activity.
The bank, which has more than 7 million customers, issued a text alert to account holders late on Saturday after it observed suspicious activity in multiple current accounts and moved to block some customer cards.
Account holders reported seeing as much as £600 siphoned from their accounts in a breach which Tesco Bank said it was urgently investigating. It pledged to refund any losses within 24 working hours, but faced widespread anger at its handling of the fraud.
One possible cause under consideration is a compromise at a third party retailer, the bank said. Another is a hack. One customer said that cash had been withdrawn from his account in four separate transactions, all coming from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.
Another said she had lost £300 in online transactions to two companies she had never heard of. The bank apologised for any inconvenience but faced fury from many customers who spent Saturday evening and much of Sunday unable to get through to the bank’s telephone helpline.
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Baxter said it took him over an hour to get through on the phone and even then the operator could only take his details and promise to get back in touch within 48 hours.
“They offered me £25 compensation which I think is laughable,” he said, adding that he had heard of another customer who had lost £1,800. Tesco said it had been alerted to suspicious activity in the accounts of “thousands, but not as many as ten thousand” customers.
Tesco Bank’s current account has lured savers recently by offering 3% interest on balances up to £3,000 and allowing customers two accounts each. But affected customers are now pledging to move banks.
“We didn’t receive any email or text but when we checked our account this morning we were down £280,” said Kirsty Brown, 36, a charity chief executive from Scotland. She alerted Tesco Bank and her account was frozen, but she said a further £20 was siphoned on Sunday afternoon.
Brown said Tesco Bank could see that the money was moved in online transfers to two companies she had never had dealings with.
“The account is still leaking money which is quite worrying,” she said. “We never used the cards for online purchases so this hasn’t come from us putting the card details on a website. This must have come from Tesco’s system.”
Another customer wrote on the bank’s website: “I have been trying to contact you since last night and have now – unsuccessfully – spent over two hours on the phone. I have identified a shortfall of over £600 between balance and funds available. You are urging affected customers to contact you at once, but making it impossible to do.”
Tesco Bank declined to comment on how much money in total was taken from customers’ accounts. Affected customers will not be able to use the contactless function on their debit cards, but will be able to use ATMs and chip and pin devices, the bank said.
It said in a statement: “Yesterday evening, we identified some suspicious activity in a small proportion of our customer’s current accounts. We have taken steps to protect these account holders and are contacting affected customers by text message. We can reassure our customers that they will not lose out as a result.”
It continued: “If you are concerned but have not received a text message, please check your account for any unusual transactions. If all transactions are familiar, it is highly likely that you have not been affected. For those impacted we will re-issue you with a card within seven-10 days and until then you can continue to use your existing card for chip and pin transactions only. We are sorry for any inconvenience.”
http://www.itv.com/news/2016-11-06/customers-cards-blocked-after-mass-tesco-bank-fraud/
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