Forged Mail Victimizes Butterfields Customer

A long-time Hamilton, UK account holder with Butterfields Bank, Ms Phillips had recently lost $4,000 from her account as she was victimized with cyber crime through e-mail scam; reports royalgazette on April 2, 2012.

The phony e-mail requests the account holder to update all the banking information. Immediately with the processing of her account, an amount of $4,000 was transferred to one of the banks in South Africa.

While explaining her plea, the victim indicated her helplessness as the bank also shrugged their shoulders and explained her about the intricacy of the matter, as published in the softpedia news on April 3, 2012.

However, the bank staffs informed her of the SWIFT message (a means by which global banks communicate with each other) on their behalf to at least delve into the intricacies of the matter. Nonetheless they showed their helplessness in reviving the lost amount.

Though a Butterfield representative communicated with the ABSA Bank, which is an African Institution, but since according to an online banking agreement the banks do not take any personal account breaches of the user, the victim was completely at dismay and seemed to recover her money by her own mode.

After several hours of tension while speaking with the ABSA Bank, Ms Phillip said she sent all the required information to Butterfields Bank so that they could help in reviving the fund. Eventually, she succeeded in receiving the money, though the whole process comprised a long list of phone calls and e-mails to both the Butterfields Bank and ABSA Bank in South Africa, a financial institution.

According to the Butterfield Bank, once they find the news of customer being victimized of online fraud, they take urgent action to contact the correspondent or the receiving banks for recovering the funds depending on the situation. However, they might not be able to interfere before the thieves disappear with the money.

In this case, the victim admits being responsible for the breach but holds strong belief that few of the existing internal controls for preventing fake transactions of these kinds are just not enough. The Bank certainly is not the only Group being targeted; in fact a 2011 Norton Corp report found the global cost of cyber crime at $400 Billion, annually.

Related article: FIRST Reveals Staggering Rise in Computer Hacking in China

» SPAMfighter News - 4/12/2012