The cost of online banking fraud more than doubled last year.
According to figures from payments industry association Apacs, online banking fraud reached 52.5 million pounds (US$76.5 million)--a 132 percent increase on 2007's figure of 22.6 million pounds (US$32.95).
According to a spokeswoman for Apacs, the rise can partly be attributed to the increase in people accessing their bank accounts online--and the attention that they attract from phishers.
"Hand in hand with a growing number of users behind the scenes, the fraudsters have woken up to that particular area of interest", she said.
Phishing attacks rose by 71 percent in the same period, while malware attacks designed to steal banking details have also grown.
"Whilst most people are aware notionally of phishing, there do seem to be a number of people that aren't taking steps to protect themselves from attack," the Apacs spokeswoman told ZDNet Asia's sister site Silicon.com.
The value of card-not-present fraud--which covers transactions made by phone, Internet or mail order, where no physical card is handled by the retailer--also rose year-on-year.
Apacs found card-not-present fraud totaled 328.4 million pounds (US$478.8 Million) last year--up 13 percent since 2007's 290.5 million pounds (US$423.55 million)--and now makes up more than half of all card fraud in the United Kingdom.
The spike in this type of fraud could in part be down to the increase in retailers accepting remote payments, as well as the increase in Web shopping, according to Apacs.
Jo Best of Silicon.com reported from London.
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Massive Fraud by Brac Bank
Believe it or not! One of the leading financial institutions in Bangladesh, named Brack Bank, which is owned by one of the largest NGOs [Non Government Organization] in the world, Brac, is into massive fraud thus swindling millions of Taka. According to documented information, Brac Bank is drawing millions of Taka from the Customers accounts by creating secret lien facilities. Such case of massive fraud was discovered when a customer received a statement of his account, where he was surprised to see that the bank has created lien worth TK. 10 million [Almost US$ 150,000] and drew the amount in the name of the customer, even without notifying him. When the matter was brought to the attention of authorities of Brac Bank, they tried to justify such fraudulent actions saying, âIt was done for the sake of customerâs safetyâ.
It is also learnt that, Brac Bank not only creates and withdraws money from the customerâs account secretly through clean fraud, it also levies all interests accrued from the amount of lien on the customer, which is not only unethical and illegal but goes beyond the minimum level of banker-customer trust.
It is learnt that such huge amounts of money drawn from the customerâs accounts secretly are passed by Brac Bank to a number of hidden businesses, which are operated by the mid-level management of the largest NGO named Brac.
While contacted, a source in Bangladesh Bank, on condition of anonymity told Weekly Blitz that, this was the first time they came to know about such massive fraud by any financial institution in Bangladesh.
âThe matter should be properly investigated and necessary actions should be taken against Brac Bankâ, said the source.
Bangladesh Bank sources further said, in previous time there had been massive fraud and swindling of public money by a number of financial institutions, but the latest case of Brac Bank is not only unique but surely goes even beyond imagination of bankers or customers in the world.
After discovery of such fraud by Brac Bank, many financial experts are opining that, keeping money with this financial institution remains at highest risk for the customers.
When contacted, manager of Brac Bank - Uttara Branch, S.M. Zahidul Alam said, it is the Corporate Policy of Brac Bank to create lien account on any of the customers for the sake of 'Customer Security'. When asked as to where the amount of TK. 10 million went, which has been shown as been drawn by the account holder, he remained silent.
The manager was reminded that, such practices are direct violation of the Regulations set by the Bangladesh Bank. Then he immediately changed his statement saying, the sudden creation of lien account of 10 million Taka was a 'software fault' of the bank.
"This must be a software problem and nothing else", he said.
Then the manager was asked as to what would happen to any account holder if due to such mysterious reason, any amount of money is shifted from one person's account to another. The manager said, "In such case, the affected account holder will require to go through legal procedures in the Courts of Law in recovering the stolen money".
It is further learnt that, Brac, the parent organization of Brac Bank receives millions of dollars through illegal channels from several rackets in the world, including drug and arms racket. The mysterious creation of lien account in Brac Bank might be designed to create a way for these undeclared fund to be converted into 'White Money' by showing to have been return of load from the customers.
Source: Weekly Blitz, www.weeklyblitz.net
Posted by Scoop News & Feature Service on Monday, March 23 2009 01:02 PM