Current account holders in Tesco Bank has experienced losing money from their accounts. Over 20,000 Tesco Bank account owners have claimed that cash has gone missing from their account without any permission.
As a result, multiple cards have been blocked and it takes a long time to connect to Tesco customer service over the phone. According to the bank, their anti-fraud system has detected suspicious activity on the affected accounts. On Monday, the bank admitted that 40,000 customers are targets of an online heist over the weekend. Money was reportedly stolen from half of the targeted accounts.
Tesco Banks took immediate action by freezing online transactions to prevent any further losses. Furthermore, the bank also pledged to refund all the customers who had money stolen from their accounts. This event is notably the largest cyber-theft issue to happen in a UK bank.
In an effort to minimize the damages, Benny Higgins, the chief executive of Tesco made the decision to freeze all banking activities. With regard to this horrible incident, Higgins had this to say: "We apologize 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."
Tesco Banks will provide a refund for those customers who have lost thousands of pounds on Monday. However, Higgins is still facing issues from MPs who are demanding an explanation. The reason behind this cyber-crime incident needs to be identified as this is the first time a large UK Bank experienced such a nerve wracking theft event.
The explanation provided by Higgins was indeed short despite the high demands for a detailed explanation to enumerate what went wrong. Customers were in a state of worry when the bank started texting them as a warning because they have detected suspicious activity. All Higgins told BBC was "it was a systematic, sophisticated attack"
