Lately mis sold PPI has dominated the banking world as many banks have been found guilty of mis selling Payment Protection Insurance. However, now a new baddie is in town and this virus called Zeus has stormed through internet banking pilfering money from innocent user’s accounts.
19 scammers were arrested last week for stealing millions from UK customer’s bank accounts using a computer virus. The computer virus Zeus was used to steal up to £6 million through an online banking scam that lasted about 3 months earlier this year.
The 19 hackers from London consisted of 15 men and four women designed a Trojan computer virus, they named Zeus, to gather passwords when customers typed them in to do online banking from their computer. The suspects created false bank accounts then used the passwords to transfer money from innocent customer’s accounts to the fake accounts.
Terry Wilson, detective chief inspector handling the case stated:
“We believe we have disrupted a highly organised criminal network, which has used sophisticated methods to siphon large amounts of cash from many innocent peoples’ accounts, causing immense personal anxiety and significant financial harm.”
This attack on internet banking has caused many users to lose money as 31% of all bank customers are said to use Online Banking as their preferred method of accessing their account and transferring money. Customers who use internet banking are being urged to check their security settings and make sure they have suitable virus protection.
It is important you check your bank statements regularly for any unauthorised money transfers; if anything looks suspicious you should report this to your bank immediately.
This scandal has shaken the internet banking model seeing many banks update their customer log ins to improve security. Now the suspects are on trial we hope this is the end of the Zeus bug but be wary of any transactions that look suspicious.
