silentwalker

This morning when I logged in to my commonwealth netbank account, I was shocked to see some transactions in EURO. There were about half a dozen transactions where money was taken from my account in EURO. I realized there must be some mistake or I am being hacked!

We called the support quickly and was able to lodge a dispute. The lady on the phone was really helpful and assured us that the money will be returned within 30 days, hopefully. She reckoned our ATM card number and PIN were stolen somehow when we used it. We do use it frequently. After the call we changed the PIN numbers.

We were told there have been mass emailing recently to netbank users where the sender pretended to be Commonwealth bank and asked users for their details. This I was aware of, but didn't realize someone would be able to somehow duplicate the ATM card that I still have.

Just letting others know so that you can watch your back.

busterboy

Where are you based? We have just had a Eastern European gang caught in Melbourne skimming cards.

My own Mastercard was used to buy Turkish airflights to the tune of $1200 two months ago. The bank, HSBC, said it would be recredited to my card but off course it hasn't and I know have to lodge a dispute.

breezeboylan

Same thing happened to me last week. I received an e-mail from my banking saying they stopped my card until I contacted them as a flight on an American airline had been paid for with my card the previous night and it was flagged as a suspicious transaction. I contacted them straight away and they said there has been a spate of these flights being booked. It was only for $77 luckily but I have to still go to the hassel of claiming it back and have had to have a new card and pin sent out
Tracie

MarkMC

Same here, my card+pin was copied and used in India last year. MBNA stopped the card.

GaryVFR8

Hi all,
I work for Commonwealth Bank, The commonwealth bank and I would suspect all banks will never email people and have a link on the email. If your ever logging onto any bank webpage you should go to the banks webpage direct.
If anyone calls you from a bank you should ask them for there name and say you will call them back on the banks normal number which will be listed on there webpage or in the phone book.
A great website to help look at Scams is

www.scamwatch.gov.au

The other problem at the moment is Skimming at ATM's, I have had a few calls where people have had the card skimmed, I would advise all people to be careful when using ATM's and check to make sure there is no device attached and to cover your hand over so people can't video what pin number your entering.
Gary

MarkMC

I've had the Commonwealth bank and some St George emails. The biggest give away that they are fake is that I'm with Westpac

moneypenny20

I get emails from Barclays and Lloyds. Never banked with either of them.

Edit: I do know the emails aren't really from Barclays and Lloyds before someone tries to put me right

steve_kelly_and_boys

hi all

i check my on line banking every day , about 3 weeks ago £850 was transferred out of my account . rang the abbey up and they put me through to fraud department , they said they would look into it and ring me back which they did within the hour . someone had rang them up and transferred it they knew all my security answers basically everything about me .they are paying me back straight away as they record all messages they listened back on it and knew straight away it wasnt me . a couple of days later had another transaction go out to oxfam a donation for £30 i rang them up and said i didnt recall making a donation but my card had been fraudulently used and they told me that they have donations all the time and what they are doing is seeing if the card is live they normally have small donations of say £5 abbey have frozen the account totally and are giving me a new account and just changing everything over . the thing is i am uber careful always shred anything with my name on , never respond to the emails never use my card in small shops ( we had a major credit card fraud around here with the petrol garages ) and i still had it done to me
never mind all will be back to normal within the week

silentwalker

I'm in Sydney, most of the time I used ATM's around QVB but then again I use it in shops too. Its really scary listening to all the incidents. I'm weary of using the ATM card at the moment, probably I'll switch back to the old ways of carrying cash to shop around. I preferred using ATM cards as it helped me keep track of my expenses.

The amounts taken from my account seemed to be going to some company in Italy. But probably the description is fake as well, who knows!

Kooky.

I'm in Sydney, too. I hadn't used my Krisflyer Amex (Singapore card) since moving to Sydney in May last year, then I used it twice in Singapore on a stopover in September and once for a large amount in Chatswood (North Sydney) in October. In November it was used to make a GBP750ish transaction at Travelodge in the UK. I have my suspicions that it was the Chatswood transaction that did it, although Amex won't confirm. I still won't be going there again.

I get tons of emails from "banks" I've never been with. I also get some from "Abbey National" with whom I bank offshore. The scammers really need to keep up with the financial news; they haven't been called that for a few years now.

invictia

On a good note.............I went on holiday to Singapore last week, and Bank SA phoned me to confirm that I did actually make a purchase in Singapore with my Credit Card.

Syedney

I am in IT and one of the methods that hackers use is phishing which a lot of people have head of it, but when presented with, have no idea what it can be.

Here's a tip:

When you receive any email from a the so-calld Bank, do this: Over, but don't click on the link in the email. NEVER click on any links.

Hover on the link. You should see on the left hand side of browser, at the bottom, the link's address. A link could be going to some dodgy place, but the text shown could say something like ABBEY etc... anything really. So check the link.
Second tip: Call the bank and ask about the email. Say you refuse to click only link and that you want the bank staff to carry the procedure they are asking you about in the email, by themselves.

ATM Tip:

When you see an ATM machine, check that you can see intermittent lights. They are a good way of detecting whether ATM is doctored or fake. A genuine ATM will have flashing lights where the card is to be inserted.

Look around you at ATM. The ATM could be genuine with no issues, but someone could be watching you typing in your card numbers. After that they just need to get the details on your strip. For the thief, thats one step closer to getting at your money.

You can get two accounts if you're really worried at someone taking your money. In one account just have small amount of money, and use the card for that account everyday. When you run of money or need more, just transfer it from the main account, for which you keep the card at home and only use it very occasionaly.

Remember, no genuine bank worker will have ask for your login or password details. Not in email or by phone.They are not allowed to do ask for these.

Hope this helps

Syedney

Sorry about typos...Just rushing to get to bed.

silentwalker

Thanks for your tips mate.

I'm also in IT and know about the problems realated to email or links. There are a lot of ways to get your account number/password for a netbank type login. I always thought that is the easiest part for a theif compared to skimming ATM cards. One good thing about commonwealth netbank is its sms service. Whenever you try to send money from netbank to a new account, it sends a code to your cell which you then need to put in to submit your transaction.

bithbheo

had the same thing happen few weeks ago had a transaction from Milano for euros so reported it immediately while the company were checking it out I had a call from them to say a request for a few thousand had been requested from Finland...so they cancelled my card straight away....and I got previous money back.......