In 2007 the Swedish Bank, Nordea was stung for $1.1 million, in the “biggest ever” online bank heist. 250 bank customers were affected by the fraud after falling victim to phishing e-mails. The e-mail contained a trojan horse that redirected customers to a false home page where they entered important login information. Most of the customers affected had not been running antivirus applications on their computers. The bank covered the attacks and refunded all the affected customers.
In 2009 Credit Union Customers received text messages notifying them that their debit cards had been inactivated. The message gave a number to call to reactivate the card and the customers were then asked for personal banking information. Those who provided information instantly had their bank accounts wiped out. 100 people fell for it and the bank had to refund the money to their accounts.
Incidents like these occur every day.
Should banks really be held accountable for their customers’ lack of awareness?
Will the customers ever be made liable?
While these events clearly indicate a lack of understanding among bank customers, the real problem lays within the lack of education provided by banks. Banks should implement awareness programs and training options for their customers and provide them with up-to-date information regarding the latest security threats, risks and best practices. By engaging and educating customers, banks can not only create a competitive advantage and add value to their services, banks can also help prevent incidents like those mentioned above from occurring and save valuable time and money, while avoiding embarrassing and expensive headlines.