http://www.businessinsider.com/citigroup-caught-up-in-nigerian-email-scam-2009-2
One of the topics we have discussed in class a few times is Nigerian Email Scams. We’ve all seen them, and none of us were duped. Citibank was, though!
A Nigerian living in Singapore and his posse convinced Citibank to wire $27 million to his accounts! The money came from the Ethiopian Central Bank. The scammers did a bit more than send a too-good-to-be-true email. They found out bank officials’ names and sent authentic-looking documents to Citibank. They even managed to “pose as bank officials” to get the transactions approved.
Unfortunately for the crooks, major wire transfers from government central banks are a bit more difficult to handle than Grandma’s $15K check. The bandits’ banks weren’t able to process the transactions, so their banks contacted the Ethiopian Central Bank. When the Central Bank didn’t recognize the transactions, the scam was exposed.
In this case, jail time is likely. Individuals are usually not so lucky. In fact, under certain dollar thresholds, some identity theft is not even investigated. This is frustrating, because the thieves know how to work the system, so they just steal more and more account numbers, spending whatever they want, with little concern for recourse.
In many cases, credit cards (or accounts) are stolen, and the credit card companies insure these, so customers usually get their money back pretty quickly. Unfortunately, when the funds are tied to a bank account, even if it is insured, the wait to receive a refund can be about a week. This happened to a friend of mine who is a teacher and doesn’t have credit cards. The theft prevented her from paying bills and even buying groceries.
The funny thing about Citibank being the target is that Citi is known for being a very paranoid bank. Every time I use my credit card someplace new, or to buy something I haven’t purchased before, I get a phone call to make sure I really made that purchase. Citi did this on their own behalf as well. They called bank officals for each of the accounts these funds were transferred to. Unfortunately, their security policy got caught in a feedback loop – they called the fake bank officials whose names and numbers were included in the fraudulent request for the wire transfer!
This hits home with me because I just got a letter from my bank that my debit card information was compromised – between May and November 2008! After scanning all of my major purchases between those dates to make sure my account wasn’t breached, I called the 800-number to activate the card. There was no bank identification, just a message asking for my card number and SSN. Nuh-uh! I called the bank directly instead.
Stay safe.
One of the topics we have discussed in class a few times is Nigerian Email Scams. We’ve all seen them, and none of us were duped. Citibank was, though!
A Nigerian living in Singapore and his posse convinced Citibank to wire $27 million to his accounts! The money came from the Ethiopian Central Bank. The scammers did a bit more than send a too-good-to-be-true email. They found out bank officials’ names and sent authentic-looking documents to Citibank. They even managed to “pose as bank officials” to get the transactions approved.
Unfortunately for the crooks, major wire transfers from government central banks are a bit more difficult to handle than Grandma’s $15K check. The bandits’ banks weren’t able to process the transactions, so their banks contacted the Ethiopian Central Bank. When the Central Bank didn’t recognize the transactions, the scam was exposed.
In this case, jail time is likely. Individuals are usually not so lucky. In fact, under certain dollar thresholds, some identity theft is not even investigated. This is frustrating, because the thieves know how to work the system, so they just steal more and more account numbers, spending whatever they want, with little concern for recourse.
In many cases, credit cards (or accounts) are stolen, and the credit card companies insure these, so customers usually get their money back pretty quickly. Unfortunately, when the funds are tied to a bank account, even if it is insured, the wait to receive a refund can be about a week. This happened to a friend of mine who is a teacher and doesn’t have credit cards. The theft prevented her from paying bills and even buying groceries.
The funny thing about Citibank being the target is that Citi is known for being a very paranoid bank. Every time I use my credit card someplace new, or to buy something I haven’t purchased before, I get a phone call to make sure I really made that purchase. Citi did this on their own behalf as well. They called bank officals for each of the accounts these funds were transferred to. Unfortunately, their security policy got caught in a feedback loop – they called the fake bank officials whose names and numbers were included in the fraudulent request for the wire transfer!
This hits home with me because I just got a letter from my bank that my debit card information was compromised – between May and November 2008! After scanning all of my major purchases between those dates to make sure my account wasn’t breached, I called the 800-number to activate the card. There was no bank identification, just a message asking for my card number and SSN. Nuh-uh! I called the bank directly instead.
Stay safe.
