Lets Be Careful Out There

Following on from a friend's brush with identity theft resulting in the emptying of his bank account and unauthorised use of a credit card the topic of bank security has been high on our list of work conversations. A couple of incidents have come to light in the past couple of weeks.

Firstly a colleague was buying a new car (new to him you understand, we're all criminally underpaid ;-) so off he trotted to the bank to withdraw £2000 in cash. He handed over his bank card and asked to withdraw the two grand. "Certainly Sir" says the bank drone "I can give you that in £20 notes or if you want £50 notes you'll have to go to a different window." and swiftly proceeds to count out the cash. "Errr?!!? says my colleague "Don't you want me to type in my PIN number or sign something or show some photographic identity." "That's not necessary" replies the drone. "Eh?" days my colleague (a bit concerned and flabbergasted in equal measure). "I have your description here attached to your account details and everything is OK". Now, my colleague is the spitting image of Henrik Larsson, so we can only imagine it says the same in his bank's description but really, what sort of security is that? All you have to do is look like someone and the bank will hand over 2 grand in cash. Unbelievable!

Next up was the boss who was positively rocked by my retelling of the iand.net story (for reasons I'll not go into). To cut a long story short he decided he wanted to close a long forgotten ISA account at his Building Society and use the cash to cut a lump off his mortgage. In he walked (for the first time in 7 years he reckoned) asked to close the account and requested a cheque for the total. "Certainly Sir." went the drone and promptly closed the account and printed a cheque. No queries, no quibbles here's the cheque. Now the boss had armed himself with two forms of photographic identity expecting to be grilled before being allowed access to the account. He had a go at the drone and eventually demanded to see the Manager about his concerns on the bank's security. The Manager seemed uninterested and said it was OK as the cheque was made out to my boss and therefore could only be deposited by him. But as we know that's not too difficult to circumvent. All very worrying.

So, like Ian, everyone in our office is re-examining their approach to financial security, changing passwords, purchasing shredders, studying statements etc. I suggest you all do the same.

Category:

• Money
• Security