Tesco Bank: 20000 customers lose money in the weekend

Tesco said that around 20,000 customers had lost money as a result and another 20,000 have been identified as falling victim to ‘suspicious activity’.
Over the weekend customers reported that money had gone missing from accounts with some complaining they could not get through on the phone to the bank, which has 7 million customers.
The bank was earlier forced to block some customers’ cards after ‘suspicious activity’ was detected in its fraud prevention system.
Mr Higgins said: ‘Tesco Bank can confirm that, over the weekend, some of its customer current accounts have been subject to online criminal activity, in some cases resulting in money being withdrawn fraudulently.

"Any financial loss that results from this fraudulent activity will be borne by the bank," Mr Higgins said. "Customers are not at financial risk." And he told the BBC he was "very hopeful" customers would be refunded within 24 hours.
"We continue to work with the authorities and regulators to address the fraud and will keep our customers informed through regular updates on our website, Twitter, and direct communication," he added.

One cybersecurity expert said this could be an unprecedented breach at a British bank. "I've not heard of an attack of this nature and scale on a UK bank where it appears that the bank's central system is the target," said Prof Alan Woodward of the University of Surrey.

The Financial Conduct Authority is monitoring the situation. The National Crime Agency said it had been notified by Tesco Bank and was coordinating a response among law enforcement agencies.