Businesswoman claims bank transferred €85,000 out of her account “during phone conversation”
In another terrifying example of how sophisticated online scams have become, a Caldas da Rainha businesswoman has been describing how €85,000 was transferred out of her account during what she believed was a conversation with her bank, EuroBic/ABANCA in Caldas da Rainha.
Elisabete Rebelo, the owner of Rotunda Peças (a company supplying car parts), explains she was trying to access her bank account via computer to pay a bill. “I noticed a strange box that wouldn’t let me do anything. I exited the portal and called the bank. The account manager told me to call off, as she had to be in touch with colleagues at head office in Lisbon. Later, she put me on the line to one of them”.
Rebelo was asked for her fiscal number, and then told to “follow certain steps on the portal”.
Throughout the process, the person on the end of the line repeatedly told Rebelo that “everything was normal”, she says.
“Then, I was told to exit the application and return to it once more. When I finished the conversation, I went to pay a bill of €99.90, but the account did not have enough funds. It had more than €85,000 minutes before and now had only €24.45”.
It was at this point that she “found codes on her mobile phone for two transfers of €50,000 and €35,000 made while she was on the phone with the bank, without her authorisation or even her knowledge”, explains CM.
A new call to the bank to ask for the transactions to be cancelled resulted in refusal, says the paper. Ms Rebelo was asked to go to the bank where, she tells CM, “they asked me to sign a paper to say it was I who had called them , via a number starting with 808.
“I didn’t sign. The bank had entered in touch with me, and the number that called me began with the area code 210…”
For the time being, Elizabete Rebelo remains without the money removed from her bank account, unable to pay bills or her employees, she tells CM. She has filed official complaints with PSP police and with the Bank of Portugal.
EuroBic/ ABANCA has not responded to CM’s questions (or hadn’t when the paper wrote its story), but in a letter to Elisabete Rebelo it is cited as having said that “the transactions were carried out using access credentials known only to the legal representative” of Rotunda Peças, emphasising that “the transactions were confirmed by tokens (a strong authentication system) via SMS sent to the registered mobile phone number.
“As they did not originate from any illegal entry into the bank’s system or lack of security levels, the bank is not responsible for the transactions”.
Nonetheless, in response to Ms Rebelo’s complaints, the bank has reportedly said that it is “analysing” the situation.
TVI has also covered this story, putting it on the channel’s Facebook page. Commentaries beneath are revealing. Says one: “This is not an isolated case. It has happened before and systematically with several clients of EuroBic/ ABANCA. The position of the bank has been the same with everyone (…) attributing blame on the client. It is incredible that the Bank of Portugal and other authorities have not taken action”.
Other comments show that Elisabete Rebelo is just the latest victim in a form of fraud that seems to take place throughout Europe.
Source material: Correio da Manhã/ TVI
