The series of articles on fraud continues On the Forbes page.
17 million Hungarian forints were stolen from someone, and he doesn’t even know how.
After the transfer, payment messages appeared successively on his phone, then immediately disappeared, as it quickly became clear that 17 million Hungarian forints had just been transferred from his account. Instead of SMS, he used the more secure in-app fingerprint approval, but in vain, it didn’t matter, the scammers hacked the phone app without any problems. (Unfortunately, the type of phone was not revealed in the article.)
Since the scammers gained access to his account (and he was locked out of it by retyping a simple email address), it was no use putting his savings in a safe, as they could easily withdraw all the money from there.
The WISE system did not realize that the client was present in four European countries at the same time, which was physically impossible, nor did they consider it questionable why he was distributing all his money between four unknown and newly added (and possibly newly registered) account numbers.
Such an obvious, blatant sign of fraud wouldn’t cross Wise’s trigger threshold, but an online purchase for just a few dollars could lead to an unwarranted ban, because the alarm bells are ringing here without any meaning.
(The entrepreneurs complained a few weeks ago that they wanted to pay taxes from the Wise account, but without any specific reason they froze their account for a week, saying they were checking their source of income. All this with the entrepreneurs’ accounts that have been running for years.
In another case, because of a few euros from a random place, the account is blocked until you file a tax return on what you live on. As if the two things have anything to do with each other.
I also wanted to pay taxes on Wise a few days ago, but after several attempts I only received a “Sorry, something’s not working” screen. NAV found the account number suspicious, and the scammers’ account numbers were good. I had to transfer money from Wise to another account (I was able to transfer money there without any problems), and could only transfer it to NAV from there.)
Unfortunately for Wise, he couldn’t dispose of the injured limb like a thermometer, as they would do with everyone else at this time, because he knew the law and wrote to all the inspection authorities, so they instead compensated for his damages. Now the usual “it was the customer’s fault” story didn’t work. (He is the first of the victims discussed in the series of articles to recover his money).
As the article points out, fintech companies are very nice as long as there are no problems. The moment you encounter a problem, the immediate question is whether it is worth it.
The article notes that their browser cookies were stolen, so Wise thinks they’re logging in from the same device they used to. I tried it live, when logging in from a computer, it didn’t ask for any second identification, it just let me in with a simple password without me saying a single word. (Which can be copied by a keylogger at any time.) I would have been happier if I had to confirm access over the Internet somehow. (For example, this is expected in most banks.)
I’m more and more inclined to view my Wise account after Revolut as just a game account, where I load money from a regular bank account before travelling. Wise also exchanges funds at approximately 1%, which is the amount Hungarian banks actually exchange funds at, and there are practically no fees on my Raiffeisen Gold2 account throughout the year. So why do I enjoy such trendy and luxurious accounts, where such blatant fraud is not apparent? It would be useful for the online security account I use and set up for subscriptions.
Last time I wrote, Wise was not reachable in any way, as customer service is only available for a few hours on business days. Since then, I’ve wanted to call back a referral once, but “of course” I didn’t know because it wasn’t during the four hours that they are willing to talk to the client.
It is time for banks to bear damages after every fraud, no matter how wrong the customer was. They can solve the problem immediately if it is hurting them too.
– Geolocation, it should not be possible to suddenly make transfers from my account from Spain and use my card at three points in the world at the same time.
– It is not possible to transfer more than X amount to newly added account numbers for at least one day, and even a small amount will be delayed.
– Funds transferred from a savings account cannot be transferred to a new account number.
– A newly obtained loan or a personal loan made online cannot be deferred for one day. (They have done this recently, they not only empty the account, they also apply for a loan online and are rejected. Ironically, this does not break the security in the banking system, they clear the entire account, and even (get a loan and also get rejected to Newly added account number. The emergency bell does not ring at the bank.)
– Banks, including “neo-banks”, must have normal customer service available 24 hours a day, even contacting the customer if they detect a suspicious transaction. Yes, it costs money, as do the hundreds of billions that have been defrauded.
– Daily and monthly limits for transfers can also be set in each bank, similar to the card limit. This can only be changed by customer service over the phone or by waiting one day.
“If they were hit by a scam, they would print thousands of ads so no one would fall victim.” They don’t care now, and it’s not their fault.
Review of the Raiffeisen Gold 2 and Prime Select packages
How much does it cost to use a bank card abroad?
