Following on from this thread and a 40 min phone conversation with the bank We now have a more complete picture of what happened and it's a scary near miss ( hopefully ) .
It seems since early this year there has been a criminal syndicate operating out of NSW who have succeeded in getting millions out of accounts in Australia and what appeared from first reports to be an amateur attempt at old style signature fraud was the last move in a large scale criminal ring.....
Unknown to us for several months they had complete access to our accounts ....
Apparently we had to have had malware on out computer which tracked key strokes obtaining our account numbers , passwords and all of our identifying details . Some of these will delete them selves from the computer after they have got their required info . We have upto date Trend PC .
Not only did they get this info from our computer but they also managed to obtain copies of both our signatures and used this and the above information to go to the bank with 100 points of ID , provide the bank with all our info , accounts etc and our signatures on the appropriate forms to be added as co - signatures to our accounts .
This is targeting all of the banks .
Recently ,they went to the bank in another state and presented all the appropriate documentation to start making withdrawls . Only a decision by the bank to check with us via phone alerted them and us to what was going on.
So , computer is having new software installed to detect malware.... Passwords will be changed on a regular basis . The complexity of the password isn't a problem We need to contact all our banks and make them aware that this has happened happen and ask what other things can be done to increase our level of security . I know with one bank , when we make movements over a certain level we get sms's a code which has to be entered before the transaction will proceed .
As the full details of our id are now in the hands of a criminal syndicate
.....sigh ......we have been advised to register with Veda Advantage so we are notified of any attempts to use our info to obtain credit facilities on our behalf.
The bank have assured us that if our funds had been accessed they would have refunded the money.
One irony is that in a recent episode of Bones , one of the characters was a victim of a more successful attempt to do this and I remember thinking how frustrating it would be to have that happen.
Cliff
It seems since early this year there has been a criminal syndicate operating out of NSW who have succeeded in getting millions out of accounts in Australia and what appeared from first reports to be an amateur attempt at old style signature fraud was the last move in a large scale criminal ring.....
Unknown to us for several months they had complete access to our accounts ....
Apparently we had to have had malware on out computer which tracked key strokes obtaining our account numbers , passwords and all of our identifying details . Some of these will delete them selves from the computer after they have got their required info . We have upto date Trend PC .
Not only did they get this info from our computer but they also managed to obtain copies of both our signatures and used this and the above information to go to the bank with 100 points of ID , provide the bank with all our info , accounts etc and our signatures on the appropriate forms to be added as co - signatures to our accounts .
This is targeting all of the banks .
Recently ,they went to the bank in another state and presented all the appropriate documentation to start making withdrawls . Only a decision by the bank to check with us via phone alerted them and us to what was going on.
So , computer is having new software installed to detect malware.... Passwords will be changed on a regular basis . The complexity of the password isn't a problem We need to contact all our banks and make them aware that this has happened happen and ask what other things can be done to increase our level of security . I know with one bank , when we make movements over a certain level we get sms's a code which has to be entered before the transaction will proceed .
As the full details of our id are now in the hands of a criminal syndicate
.....sigh ......we have been advised to register with Veda Advantage so we are notified of any attempts to use our info to obtain credit facilities on our behalf.
The bank have assured us that if our funds had been accessed they would have refunded the money.
One irony is that in a recent episode of Bones , one of the characters was a victim of a more successful attempt to do this and I remember thinking how frustrating it would be to have that happen.
Cliff
