Home bank accounts hacked

Several online bank accounts have been hacked in the past few days, leaving accounts almost empty.

A handful of customers who use home banking in Belgium with KBC, Dexia, BNP Paribas/Fortis and ING have fallen prey to the online banking fraud, according to Belgian newspaper La Dernière Heure.

The hacking occurred using a Trojan Horse programme, which was activated about 10 days ago. Victims reported that after making an online bank transfer, they were confronted by a pop-up window, asking them to confirm the transfer. Shortly afterwards customers clicked confirm they returned to find that their bank accounts had been emptied by as much as 90%, the newspaper reported.

The banks affected have not admitted to weaknesses in the security of their online banking services. However, a conference held today with the Belgian Banking Supervision and the national body for computer security highlighted that there are security flaws in some online banking services.

There are no official figures pertaining to the number of customers who have fallen victim to the latest fraud. But individuals were advised to “protect themselves”, by closing and ignoring pop-ups and ensuring they have installed firewalls and anti-virus programmes on their computer or laptop.

It has not yet been suggested that any bank accounts in Luxembourg have been affected by the fraud.