Net Banking Warning
Illawarra Mercury
Friday September 16, 2005
THE Commonwealth Bank has issued a warning to internet bankers after a University of Wollongong student had more than $8000 stolen from his online bank account.
Adel Belkhair, an international student who is completing a PhD in commerce, was robbed of his entire savings over two days in August.Internet fraudsters managed to siphon the funds from his Commonwealth Bank account, transferring the money to pay different bills.The experience left the 39-year-old Lybian student shaken and frustrated, after he was told it could take weeks for his money to be returned.The bank has since refunded Mr Belkhair's funds after calls from the Mercury.However, the incident has sparked a warning from the Commonwealth Bank, which says customers should not use public computers for internet banking. A bank spokesman said it appeared Mr Belkhair had accessed his bank account on a computer that contained a virus, which had recorded his details.This was despite Mr Belkhair saying he had only accessed his bank account from his personal laptop computer."We believe there was some software on a computer, a virus on a computer that our customer used which gave them details of his account," the spokesman said."The funds were refunded to him .... but we normally have 21 days to refund it. Once we found out what had happened, we took action to respond to this."The spokesman said people should be wary about using public computers for banking."One of the things we do suggest is that they do be very careful that they don't use unfamiliar computers to undertake banking transactions. They don't know if they're free from viruses," he said.The spokesman said there had been an increase in internet bank fraud in recent years, leading to the Australian High Tech Crime Commission to set up a taskforce to investigate the crime.A Commonwealth Bank staff member was seconded to that taskforce, the spokesman said.
© 2005 Illawarra Mercury
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