I got a letter from the Halifax BOS' trojan team- apparently. It came on Halifax headed paper. Whether it is genuine or not I am still unsure. It appeared to be at the time. I was rather alarmed to read it. What it says basically is that someone has managed to attain my username, password and answers to my security questions for online banking thus enabling them to transfer money from my accounts. In order to remedy any attack I should update windows with latest patches and run a virus scan. Thereafter I should change my password.
Without further ado this is what I did. Windows was up to date as it turned out as with my virus checker which after a full scan turned up no viruses. Just to be sure I changed my password anyway. As I did this I was suddenly reminded of some curiosities over the past month or so. The format kept changing. At one point instead of being asked one of four security questions I was asked to provide all four which seemed strange to me. And once in to look at my accounts I was being prompted to provide my sort code and account number for one of the three accounts I administer there. Again very strange. So you might think with concerns why didn't I contact the bank? Well I would if I could. Firstly they won't let me do it by phone because after that money got stolen from the hole in the wall they suspended my telephone banking and that can only be rectified if I visit the branch in the town I grew up in with two forms of ID. The only other alternative is to visit a nearer branch which I also can't do at the moment. Its a joke really. You'd think with security concerns they could remove some red tape and to add to that I am still £80 out of pocket from the last time.
So I did all this and thought no more of it while checking my account once a week to ensure no funds had been transferred. Then yesterday I got a phone call. The first time I couldn't be bothered answering it and the second time I did. The Irish woman on the other end claimed to be from the Halifax and wanted to query when I last accessed my account. After some minutes she asked if I had authorised the transfer of £900 to another account- later it transpired this transfer was to somewhere out of the country. Alarm bells ringing I assured her I did not. So she informed me that she was sure someone was illegally accessing my online account. She has suspended my online banking and now I will receive new details to initialise the online banking once more. I cannot believe how vulnerable we all are now. I feel like taking my money out and stuffing it under the mattress but its probably not safe there either.
Anyway she asked why I had changed my password and I told her about the letter which she assured me is fake and no such department existed. She also told me she's left a message on my phone to call her back after I had not picked up the first time. When I came off the phone I checked for the message it was not there. The reason I did this was I had a more pressing concern which didn't hit me until I hung up. She said the transfer was nearly all the contents of the account but that is one account and the other two accounts have more in them. Why if someone has access to three accounts would they only try to clean out the one with the smallest amount? The answer is they wouldn't. And my big worry was that the bank had only noticed this one irregularity and there were two other more serious ones on the go. This is where it gets stranger still. Without that message and contact number I had to use dial back. According to BT the phone number doesn't exist.
So what I am left with is total confusion. Who is actually the fraud here? I couldn't find any word of a Trojan Team attached to the bank when I googled which would suggest she was right. But why would someone send me a letter telling me how to get rid of the virus if they wanted the details? According to the caller my account had been accessed twice since I changed my password by this same rogue computer which would suggest then maybe it was the change of password that allowed them to get into my accounts. I just don't know. Why the hell can't I contact this woman back? Why on earth can I not even report it to my own bank?
The reason for this post is to highlight what can happen with your details online. Please all run your virus checkers regularly as there are some nasty little beasts out there. I don't know why my virus checker picked up nothing before but I ran it last night again and it came back with this report:
I googled these new viruses it has found which you can see in the graphic. I would print it here but don't want it to appear linked in some google search. According to one site this is the little sod that rips your login details and posts them off to a remote server for thieves to raid your account. My wife informed me that just two weeks ago a guy in her work got a call from the bank to inform him £2500 had been taken from his account but he got it back quickly. Just a heads up for anyone who deals with their finances online.
