Should we expect more interest in attempted fraud from our banks?

Last week, we featured the experience of a reader who struggled to highlight the potential for fraudulent activity on her Bank of Ireland account after it was compromised. She said the bank’s staff said she would have to wait until a crime happened, rather than being proactive to stop it actually happening. The bank told us her experience was not common among its customers, but her story did prompt some other readers to get in touch. “Yesterday afternoon a Dublin number came through on my mobile phone, and as it was local I answered and was greeted by name by a Brian,” writes a reader. “I don’t usually confirm my name to unknown callers, but ask ‘Who am I taking to?’ But in this instance I confirmed my name,” she says. READ MOREShe tells us that “Brian” went on to tell her that he was phoning from the fraud department of Bank of Ireland. He said he had identified two suspicious transactions – in the amount of €500 to Revolut and a lesser, €5 amount.“Checking if I had authorised these amounts, I responded that I had not. He then went on to say that he would put steps in place to cancel both credit and debit cards and asked if they were in my possession. He then requested my email address.I then interrupted and said I would make contact with my branch today and ended the call abruptly. Seconds later, he phoned back and said that leaving it a day later would be too late – but I hung up on him.”Our reader then phoned the security line of Banking 365, Bank of Ireland’s remote banking service, and the initial automated message asked whether the call was in connection with a credit or debit card.“As both cards had been mentioned, I then chose what I thought was the debit card option. On being put through to an employee and being requested to call out my card number, I was informed that I was through to the credit card line.”She outlined her concerns “but was merely told I did the right thing in hanging up. The employee then said she would put me through to the relevant section, but I was holding on so long that I had to exit the call,” she says. ‘To make matters worse, Bank of Ireland weren’t really interested in using the information to check the fraudsters or using it as an intelligence unit in the trail of fraud’— Charlie, readerShe then sent an email to Bank of Ireland with the number she had got the original call from and heard nothing more except for an automated response. She phoned the original number that the fraudulent call came from and says it appeared to have come from Bank of Ireland, but says it “clearly was a false number. My concern is, what route is open to customers who have encountered similar scam calls to have these numbers investigated?”She is also concerned that the criminals had both her name and phone number, and says she was not impressed with the bank’s response. “The lacklustre response and inability on behalf of BOI to think outside the box in dealing with this is very concerning, given their media messages concerning security.”Another reader called Charlie got in touch to say he had a “similar experience with Bank of Ireland not being really interested in a suspected fraud attempt. I was the victim of an attempted diversion fraud,” he says, referring to what is also known as an invoice re-direction fraud. Charlie had gotten building work done and wanted to be sure his online payment would transfer to the builder without hiccups, and so took the following steps. “I just paid €1 and contacted the builder to check if he got the money. The fraudsters simply put a rule on my email to divert the invoice and then inserted their bank account and put it back in my inbox unopened. Luckily, I avoided making the payment of €25k by contacting the builder directly,” he says. “To make matters worse, Bank of Ireland weren’t really interested in using the information to check the fraudsters or using it as an intelligence unit in the trail of fraud.”[ Bank of Ireland has warned customers of spike in text scams. Here’s what to look out forOpens in new window ]He says their response amounted to “confirming no fraud had taken place and my bank account hadn’t been compromised. Anyhow, I went to the gardaí as a concerned citizen and was met with less than an enthusiastic response, as the fraud only amounted to €1. I thought the intelligence nugget with bank account details might be useful.”We sent these stories to Bank of Ireland to see what it had to say, and received this response. “We handle more than 600,000 calls annually through our 24/7 fraud support services – we aim to provide the highest standard of support, and we sincerely apologise where we fall short of those standards,” a spokeswoman said. “In addition to our customer-facing fraud teams, we have specialists dedicated to preventing, detecting, investigating and tracking fraud. These teams work closely with An Garda Síochána, other law enforcement agencies, telecommunications providers and industry partners. “Customer reports are an important source of intelligence and are investigated regardless of any financial loss. We have established arrangements with telecommunications providers to report and block suspected fraudulent numbers – over the past year, we identified and reported over 500 fraudulent phone numbers. “We also report all instances of fraud to gardaí for their investigation.”