I was chatting with one of our customers today who recently came close to becoming a victim of a banking scam, all because of a rant on twitter.
With a mortgage due for renewal they had contacted their bank who basically cocked up the process such that a rant on twitter was in-order. In response to the rant a very apologetic guy from the bank’s customer services department contacted them and promised to resolve the issue in person.
To get the mortgage through they were asked to resubmit an application online, and email proof of ID – photos of passports.
The application was successful and 50k was paid into their bank account ready to be transferred to a new account the bank had setup. The 50k showed up in their on-line banking as did the new account. It all looked legit.
It was only at the last minute when the customer service guy phoned them to ask them to go in person to the bank to authorise the transfer, that the customer thought, hold on, something’s not right.
It turns out the customer service guy was a fraudster and the 50k was a fraudulent loan setup in the customer’s name .
Next time you want to post something on-line, be it twitter or anywhere else, be aware that fraudsters are watching!