Within hours, €20,000 was stolen from Terry’s PTSB bank account. Getting it back wasn’t easy – The Irish Times

Far too often, when a person falls victim to a scam or their bank accounts are compromised and then emptied, the authorities we trust to protect us and our money – or who at least take the crime seriously and investigate properly – are found wanting found.

We’ve heard from many, many readers over the last few years who have been told by their banks that once their money is gone, it’s gone and there’s nothing more that can be done. As kickers, they are regularly told that it was probably their fault in the first place and that they should have known better.

In short, it is victim blaming at its highest level.

But every now and then, stories about money disappearing in the middle of the night end happily for the victim. Spoiler alert: This is one of those stories.

A reader called Terry from Tipperary had an experience which he shared with us in two parts. In his first email he explains that he has been a PTSB customer for almost 20 years and, in addition to his current account at the bank, he also has several savings accounts.

Over the summer, his accounts were compromised by criminals who acted quickly and stole a huge sum of money from him. They were able to transfer almost 20,000 euros from his savings account to his checking account and then immediately to a bank based in Malta, whereupon the money trail dried up.

“One of these transfers was for 9,980 euros, the other for 9,970 euros,” he writes. “I was informed by the fraud department of the bank that these transactions took place around midnight on August 14. The first time I found out about this was on the afternoon of August 15th when my Visa card was declined for an online purchase,” he writes.

Because he was (obviously) worried, he called Open 24 – PTSB’s customer line – around 4:40 p.m. and waited 10 minutes for someone to answer the call.

“Then, after answering a series of security questions, I was asked what my concern was and was subsequently told that I needed to speak to the fraud department.

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“When I asked to be put through to them he said he would but had to ask me some security questions. After answering this I was told to wait and he would put me through. After waiting about two minutes, the gentleman got back on the phone and said he was very sorry but he couldn’t put me through as the fraud department was now closed as it was only 5pm and I would do it again in the morning I have to call.”

We could pause Terry’s story for a second. Can you imagine a world where it is acceptable for someone who tries to report a theft of $20,000 to be told that the relevant department is closed and to try again tomorrow?

Neither can we. Anyway, back to Terry.

“The next day I was driving into Dublin when I stopped to call the bank and speak to the fraud department. When I got there I was asked if I was aware that a large sum of €20,000 had been withdrawn from my account and transferred to Malta. After confirming that I knew nothing about it at all, I was told that a [named staff member] took care of this matter; However, she was not at her desk at the time and would call me as soon as she returned. In the meantime, I should have my phone checked by a specialist to make sure it is not contaminated in any way,” he writes.

He was also told to reset the phone to “factory settings” if possible and report this to the Garda.

“I was also informed that there was a form that they (PTSB) required me to complete myself and have a garda sign and return to the fraud department as quickly as possible.”

After the phone call – and no doubt quite shaken – Terry decided to cancel his appointment in Dublin and return home.

“That afternoon I visited the local PTSB branch to see if I could get a copy of the form in question to fill out. However, I was informed that the local branch would not have access to this form and I would have to wait for it to arrive in the mail. I then called the local 3 store to have the phone checked and factory reset. “I then went to the local Garda station and made a full report.”

At 4:45 p.m. that day, he hadn’t heard from the woman at the PTSB who was handling his case and decided to call her.

“After our conversation, I learned no more than what her colleague had told me earlier in the day. Since then I have understood that the only development was this [his PTSB case office] has completed its report and forwarded it to senior fraud officials and is awaiting their decision, for which I am told there is no deadline for a conclusion.”

In his email he wonders whether there is evidence that PTSB was far too complacent in its investigation into the loss of his 20,000 euros.

We contacted Terry, but before we could contact PTSB, we heard back from him.

“I am pleased to inform you that this afternoon, upon checking my bank accounts, without having received any communication from the fraud department, I discovered that two payments have arrived in my checking account, one for €9,980 and the other over €9,970.” These are the two amounts that were originally debited from my account. You will understand that I am pleased to have these amounts refunded to my bank balance, but I am extremely disappointed by the communications from PTSB.”

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He said that after his initial correspondence with Pricewatch, he called the fraud department to see if there was any news on the case. He was informed that a report had been completed and submitted to senior officials for review. Their decision was awaited and could take any length of time, with no time limit.

“Then this afternoon, when I checked my bank accounts, I noticed that the two amounts mentioned above had been transferred back into my account and this happened – again – without (so far) notifying the PTSB. I’m sure you would agree with me if I said that for all the finances they spend on advertising both on television and elsewhere, they would be better off allocating a small portion of that budget to training some of their employees in Customer communication and customer care should be taken care of.”

We understand his point that communication could have been better, but if we were in his shoes and knew what we know about fraud and how some financial institutions respond to crimes of this type, we would have been so relieved that our life savings would have been lost had been returned to us that we might have forgotten everything else.

[ Ireland ‘out of step’ with other countries on anti-fraud policies – Bank of IrelandOpens in new window ]

We contacted PTSB to learn more about this case.

“We work very hard to prevent fraud in the first place and help customers recover their funds,” a spokeswoman said. “If a customer is worried about fraud, they can call our fraud team, who are available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” she continued.

“Although we are unable to discuss the details of individual cases, we maintain logs of inbound and outbound calls and our systems confirm that we attempted to contact this customer several times immediately following the incident and in the days following, without success . We have been in contact with the customer again in recent days and will ensure that he answers any questions he may have regarding his work with the bank.”

The spokeswoman said it was “important to note that while all fraud cases are investigated on an individual basis, in most cases of this type the customer’s money is recovered or covered by the bank, as was the case in this situation.”

And that was it.

Although the details of how the fraud was committed in the first case remain unclear, it was not a case in which he had been duped into authorizing a payment and the bank therefore did not account for it the money debited from his account and transferred in this way is responsible for returning it to him.

It is worth noting that the money was neither accessed by the criminals nor their Maltese bank account, but ended up suffering the financial loss.

It is interesting that PTSB said it had attempted to contact our reader several times without success and had no record of this.

A financial industry source we spoke to for this story said it was possible he accidentally downloaded malware onto his phone that gave a third party access to his phone activity and banking app.

It’s also possible, we’re told, that the malware also had access to his contacts, and if that had been the case, it would have been an easy way to block all calls and text messages from his bank, which would have put the criminal on the spot Advantage would have given him more time to steal his money, knowing that even if the transactions were a red flag, the bank would not be able to establish contact to alert our reader to the movement of his money.

If this is the case, and criminals are deliberately preventing banks from communicating with their customers, it adds a sinister element to an already opaque business.