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\n Carolyn Ramsay has shared her story to draw attention to some important weaknesses in the banks’ anti-fraud systems.\n<\/p>\n
WHEN CAROLYN RAMSAY got a text from Bank of Ireland (or so she thought) last July saying a payment of \u20ac1,750 could not be authorised, and asking her to press \u20199\u2032 if she hadn\u2019t made this transaction herself, she did so.<\/p>\n
\u201cA member of staff will contact you shortly,\u201d came the reply.<\/p>\n
Soon she got a call from a man calling himself Andrew O\u2019Keefe.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He said there had been a fraud within Bank of Ireland, which was under investigation. He advised her to transfer money to one of her other bank accounts, if she had one.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe said, \u2018Do you have another account?\u2019 He didn\u2019t mention Revolut. I said, \u2018Yes, I have a Revolut account\u2019,\u201d Ramsay explains.<\/p>\n
Correspondence continued via a WhatsApp account carrying the name \u201cAndrew O\u2019Keefe (Support)\u201d.<\/p>\n
These texts, seen by\u00a0The Journal, show that the\u00a0person knew Carolyn\u2019s name, including the correct spelling.<\/p>\n
\n Carolyn Ramsay has shared her story to draw attention to some important weaknesses in the banks’ anti-fraud systems.\n<\/p>\n
The texts were well written and used familiar Bank of Ireland terminology.\u00a0For example, she was advised that her Banking 365 (the Bank of Ireland online service) pin would remain the same, and she should delete the BoI app and redownload it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was talked through the process of transferring money out of the allegedly compromised Bank of Ireland savings account. She transferred \u20ac4,352 to her own Revolut in two instalments, one electronically and one in a Bank of Ireland branch.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Then she transferred the money from her Revolut to what \u2018Andrew O\u2019Keefe\u2019 told her was a new, replacement Bank of Ireland account. The name on the account to which she transferred the money was her own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI made the transfer and that was the end of it. Then they disappeared,\u201d Ramsay said.<\/p>\n
The new account was a fake and her money was gone.<\/p>\n
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\n The original message from the scammer purporting to be called ‘Andrew O’Keefe’ and a member of staff at Bank of Ireland. <\/p>\n
Investigation<\/p>\n
Except that wasn\u2019t quite the end of it. Ramsay followed up with both Bank of Ireland and Revolut\u2019s fraud teams, and reported the incident to garda\u00ed.<\/p>\n
She also did some sleuthing herself. She is confident she has identified the scammers and how they harvested her name and phone number.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As yet, however, no one has been brought to justice and she has not recovered her money.<\/p>\n
Payment fraud has exploded in Ireland, increasing by 27%<\/a> last year alone \u2013 and that\u2019s just the reported cases<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ramsay is sharing her story because she wants to draw attention to what she believes are some crucial weaknesses in both Bank of Ireland and Revolut\u2019s anti-fraud defences for keeping their customers safe from scammers.\u00a0<\/p>\n Firstly, no red flags were raised by Bank of Ireland about Ramsay\u2019s withdrawals from her account, despite the fact that these were completely atypical \u2013 and large \u2013 transactions for her. She has been a customer with Bank of Ireland for many years.<\/p>\n Secondly, Revolut did not query the onward payments to the scammer\u2019s account, despite the fact that the name she entered as payee \u2013 her own \u2013 and the international bank account number (Iban) cannot have aligned, since the Iban was attached to an account held by the scammer or an associate.<\/p>\n The Journal has also raised a third problem with Revolut: the fact that the lost money went to a Revolut account, identifiable as such from the Iban, but Revolut still hasn\u2019t confirmed it will be able to return it to Ramsay.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what the banks had to say for themselves.<\/p>\n Bank of Ireland<\/p>\n Bank of Ireland says it has the technology to spot and deter attempted payment fraud. However, the large and unusual withdrawals Ramsay made from Bank of Ireland following a phishing call proceeded smoothly, and nobody from the bank contacted her to query them.<\/p>\n Just a month before Ramsay was defrauded, Bank of Ireland issued a press release boasting of its \u201cnew AI-led pattern recognition technology that can help spot suspicious activity before a payment leaves the bank\u201d. It said its AI understands how accounts are typically used, helping it identify potentially suspicious behaviour earlier.<\/p>\n