Yesterday someone we know received a payment notification on their phone and accepted without paying too much attention to what it was. This person was pre occupied driving a car so they should have ignored the notification. This caused great panic as their bank account was emptied and it is their own fault. They took the day off today to see if the funds can be retrieved as maybe the 3 day transfer rule can freeze the funds from moving. What I found more worrying is this person is an accountant and is in charge of business bank accounts, not ours thankfully but part of the set up in our clients company.
Accountants that I have known have always been a bit pedantic and make sure they do things correctly taking their time. I am sure this "one off" has raised a few eyebrows because I already know their work is being called into question. You do not just make mistakes this big especially if your job is handling finances and payments with very big numbers.
I just don't understand how the brain works when this happens and you still accept and agree even when you do not recognise the transaction. The bank has done nothing wrong here and another good reason why you do not touch your phone when driving.
You always here about these things happening to other people and we are now the other people with 2 similar types of transactions trying to be paid which was not being done by us and they were denied and highlighted as fraud. It just seems as though online fraud is on the increase and are definitely targtting mobile banking.
Criminals are becoming more and more desperate especially with unemployment soaring to high levels and I do not expect these levels to drop any time soon. Cloning of cards has been around for years and why I use cash for the majority of my smaller day to day purchases. My wife and I have a joint bank account and it was her card that was compromised and not mine and I doubt whether she is as aware of things like I am and I know she is not.
Two years ago I was receiving crazy monthly phone bills and it was due to new sign ups for game contracts on my phone. I do not play games and at one stage there were over 100 game subscriptions which were being billed. I never paid the account and it was removed from the bill, but one has to blame the service providers for these corrupt business practices. This was happening with business contracts so the service providers would turn a blind eye as they were generating extra revenue and could blame someone else if questioned. You do question how this is even possible, but they must be getting away with this type of scam.
What I find disturbing is that the future is digital and one can only imagine people with their crypto accounts falling for tricks we spot easily as we have been doing this for too long now. What is obvious for us maybe not so obvious for someone else and many will be caught out. Privacy is something that is required to protect accounts and various apps and I am interested to see how COTI's encrypted garbled circuits are going to impact everyone's lives. The encryption can be used for sign ups or logging on for online devices and for any app using mobile/cell phones so not just crypto. I do think the entire banking sector will change very quickly as they need to because this type of trend is worrying.