A mother of two on maternity leave is “devastated” to have lost $10,000 after hackers bypassed two-factor authentication on her ING bank account.
The hackers first transferred thousands from her savings account into her everyday account.
They then made it past the security protections by changing the bank account details of people’s information she had saved to the scammer’s own account details, allowing them to make multiple undetected payments.
Kim Keen, who works for Nine Entertainment, said she first noticed she had lost about $10,000 when she checked her bank balance one Saturday night.
“They got around it and just kept transferring $999, $995, $1000, $420, random amounts over about two hours and it was gone,” Keen said.
Keen called ING within two hours of the money disappearing and her account was frozen.
She said she was told at the time the bank would attempt to recover the missing funds but was shocked to hear they couldn’t get her money back.
“They essentially just said that because I didn’t secure my access code, that it’s my fault and they won’t be returning the funds,” Keen said.
“Of course I haven’t given this number out to anyone, it’s $10,000, it’s my maternity leave money, we saved this so I could have money while I was on maternity leave and not feel any financial pressure.
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“I just can’t believe I have to fight this hard to try and get my own money back, it’s just devastating.”
An ING spokesperson said they were currently reviewing Keen’s complaint.
But the law could be on her side, according to Consumer Action Law Centre CEO Gerard Brody.
“If the customer didn’t authorise the transaction, they shouldn’t be liable for them and the bank should reimburse them,” Brody said.
Keen is now awaiting a response from the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
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