Bank Fraud

[Sadlonelygit]

One of my accounts is with a well known Lithuanian bank, which has come under fire for excessive amounts of fraud occuring to it's customers.
Just read the report, and 'Jack' lost £169k because HE transferred money out of his account to a 'safe' account. DUH!
Perhaps I've been lucky, or just not stupid enough to reply to 'your netflix account payment failed, please re enter your payment details' etc.
According to 'sources', nearly ⅔ (64%) of all phishing scams originate on meta owned platforms.
Right, just got to send my Aunty Ethel some Colombian dollar via WU as she's been mugged in South America......

[Mr. Dazzle]

I think bank is a strong word here

I had two choices when setting up a new account to get a card without foreign currency charges. I chose Starling, the one which is actually a bank.

[gremlin]

I have an account with said Lithuanian bank. It's convenient when travelling as you can buy/sell ccy at a decent rate and use the card in local ccy.

What I don't do, is keep any more money there than I may need for a few days because they are known in the industry for their shambolic fraud and AML processes.

That said, I do have to wonder about the ability of people to keep themselves safe. If your 'bank' rings you, tell them to fuck off, it'll be a scam. Let's face it, you ring them and they take bloody ages to pick up. What's the likelihood of them actually taking the time to ring you?

[Cousin Jack]

The current bank rules just mean the normal decent customers subsidise the stupid or wilfully ignorant.

[Mr. Dazzle]

That said, I do have to wonder about the ability of people to keep themselves safe. If your 'bank' rings you, tell them to fuck off, it'll be a scam. Let's face it, you ring them and they take bloody ages to pick up. What's the likelihood of them actually taking the time to ring you?

My bank have actually called me about fraud before (someone cloned my card).

I just said "do you have a ref number and what's your name?", then hung up and called them back from a number I found myself. Oddly enough they weren't funny about it at all, 'cause that's what you're advised to do.

[gremlin]

The current bank rules just mean the normal decent customers subsidise the stupid or wilfully ignorant.

Agreed. If you leave your front door open and somebody walks in and nicks your treasured possessions, your insurer will rightly refuse to pay out. Give somebody the contents of your bank account because they happen to know a few details, and suddenly the bank is liable.

Crazy.

[Sadlonelygit]

What has HAPPENED to this place
Colombia uses the peso FFS!

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah but you used a lower case d, so I assumed it was a vernacular dollar.

[DefTrap]

You can see how it happens. Those of us who work normal office jobs have Security Awareness issues thrown at us and trained on constantly. We ignore it at our peril - but there are still those who are lazy or sadly too thick to get it - I have a long list of collagues who repeatedly fail really lame phishing test emailing as part of our organization's security policy. My c90yo folks are a million miles away form being savvy at all in this respect - the only thing that is sort of protecting them is their total inability to enagage in most modern technologies - but I fully expect them to eventually succumb to an email scam. If they work out my old man is mad about cars and email him hooky tempting discount offers with clickable links, he'll be sucked straight in.

[Mr. Dazzle]

I have a long list of collagues who repeatedly fail really lame phishing test emailing as part of our organization's security policy. My c90yo folks are a million miles away form being savvy at all in this respect -

We all have to have 645 digit passwords which are changed every 30 days and MFA, but in every instance I've known of "my" company being compromised it's cause someone clicked a dodgy link. Almost invariably the ops director, regardless of firm.

[ChrisW]

First Direct also don't make charges for use abroad, if you'd like a bank that's been around for a while - and if that makes a difference.

I've used them almost since they launched but, honestly, only because their cards were plain black.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Aren't they actually HSBC in disguise and thus almost certainly evil / historically linked to slavery / other?

[KungFooBob]

First Direct also don't make charges for use abroad, if you'd like a bank that's been around for a while - and if that makes a difference.

I've used them almost since they launched but, honestly, only because their cards were plain black.

I've got a Halifax Clarity Mastercard Credit card, no charges for use abroad.

I've got a Santander 123 account, no charges for use abroad... well the account costs me £3 a month, but I usually get £13 cash back and a savings account with a 7% interest rate on the first £4k, which nets me £22 a month.

[Mr. Dazzle]

Yeah but I'm a millennial and thus duty bound to choose a funky online firm with a made up name.

[mangocrazy]

Aren't they actually HSBC in disguise and thus almost certainly evil / historically linked to slavery / other?

They're part of the HSBC group but are a completely arm's length operation. They have their own IT systems and have quite astonishing amounts of autonomy in what is still a pretty straight-laced parent company. HSBC types send themselves into a tizzy because of this - I found them good to work with and responsive. Once I transfer my HSBC stocks & shares ISA to a suitable platform I'm dumping my HSBC accounts and firing up a First Direct one.

Virgin Money also have an account that is free to withdraw €uros on their debit card and gives you Interbank rate, same with purchases in Euroland. There is also a Barclays credit card that is commission free and gives Interbank rates.

[Sunny]

I think bank is a strong word here

I had two choices when setting up a new account to get a card without foreign currency charges. I chose Starling, the one which is actually a bank.

What about Monzo?

[Mr. Dazzle]

Too made up and I don't like their corporate pallet.

[ChrisW]

Aren't they actually HSBC in disguise and thus almost certainly evil / historically linked to slavery / other?

They're part of the HSBC group but are a completely arm's length operation. They have their own IT systems and have quite astonishing amounts of autonomy in what is still a pretty straight-laced parent company. HSBC types send themselves into a tizzy because of this - I found them good to work with and responsive. Once I transfer my HSBC stocks & shares ISA to a suitable platform I'm dumping my HSBC accounts and firing up a First Direct one.

I once visited them for work reasons up in Leeds. All the guff about the call-centre staff genuinely enjoying working there was true.

[Noggin]

I originally had a Wise account. I haven’t used it since I tried to get my statements a while back (to send to the tax office or some such!) and they said that I couldn’t access my statements until I put 20€ of credit in the account

I’m pretty sure that’s not allowed and at the time I had nothing to transfer in. Actually had to borrow money to enable me to get my bank statements and then transfer the money back

So since then I’ve used the above dodgy bank instead!

But as Gremlin said, I transfer in what I need, I still have a French current account. But it’s handy to have access to a ‘free’ multi currency account - especially in winter when I’m going between France and Switzerland a few times a week!!

[Sunny]

Too made up and I don't like their corporate pallet.