It has been confirmed that due to hacking over the weekend, 40,000 current accounts noted suspicious transactions and 20,000 of those had money taken from them.
On Saturday night, Tesco Bank warned current account holders of the suspicious criminal activity by sending a text alert to all account holders. Customers experienced difficulty contacting the bank through the phone line, with one customer reportedly waiting in a queue to speak to someone for 2 hours.
Different value amounts were taken from the affected accounts, of which some customers were reporting as much as £600 deducted from their accounts.
Benny Higgins, Chief Executive of Tesco Bank, commented: “We apologise for the worry and inconvenience that this has caused for customers, and can only stress that we are taking every step to protect our customers’ accounts. That is why, as a precautionary measure, we have taken the decision today to temporarily stop online transactions from current accounts. This will only affect current account customers.”
Higgins continued: “While online transactions will not be available, current account customers will still be able to use their cards for cash withdrawals, chip and pin payments, and all existing bill payments and direct debits will continue as normal. We are working hard to resume normal service on current accounts as soon as possible.”
In regards to the culprit(s) of the attack, Higgins commented: “In the modern world it is impossible to be totally impregnable. We are in dialogue with the national crime agencies and with the financial conduct authority.”
Tesco Bank have been very open with the threat to their customers’ accounts and have reassured current account holders that those who have lost money will hope to be refunded within the next 24 hours.
