Ubank hacking: Man has $20k drained from bank account after details leaked by Optus, Medibank
He was horrified to discover his life savings, along with his pay for January had been drained from his account, and he has no idea if he will see his money again.
A Brisbane man has been left unable to sleep after all his savings and his entire salary for January was cleaned out of his account – leaving him with no money to pay off his car loan or credit card.
John* was caught up in both the Optus and Medibank hacking scandals – which saw millions of customers affected – and is feeling “hopeless” as he believes his stolen details are now impacting him in the worst way.
While his account with Optus has been closed well before the hack, he is still a current Medibank customer.
The sophisticated scam saw the hackers move close to $20,000 out of his Commonwealth Bank account two weeks ago and into another account he held with Ubank – where it promptly disappeared.
The money was moved in almost a dozen transactions ranging from $200 to $4050.
“I couldn’t sleep since it happened … I slept just two to three hours a night. It’s quite a stressful situation knowing I don’t have any money. I don’t have access to cash, I can’t trust the bank anymore – it’s a total messed up situation right now,” he said.
The 42-year-old said he moved to Australia a decade ago and the savings were a safety net, including for his partner who recently required surgery.
“It’s four or five years of putting aside the money and saving it to do something useful and basically right now we are back to zero,” he added.
“We came to Australia 10 years ago and are back to zero and starting from scratch.”
John said it all began on 20 January when he received an email that a new pay ID had been added to his Ubank account but he ignored it as he thought it was spam.
But when a further email landed flagging another new pay ID had been added he logged into his account and was horrified to discover that $19,440 had been emptied from his account.
He said he has no idea how the scammers got access to his account but believes it involves identity theft having been caught up in two of the biggest hacks in Australian history.
However, John is critical of both Commonwealth Bank and Ubank in what he claims is a lack of security with a phone call to verify his identity just requiring his name, date of birth and address.
“For me all three details were leaked from Medibank and Optus, so why doesn’t the bank have any layer of security that is specific to me and anyone can find the information on internet? Anyone can call the bank and pretend to be me,” he said.
“I see this as identify theft. I lost my savings and salary which I received on 15 January so basically my account is drained.
“I have no money in my account. I paid my home loan but I have my car loan and credit card and can’t pay them at the moment. My bank account is frozen and it’s clearly not my fault.”
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The IT worker said it was particularly distressing that he has been told by both banks that the investigation into his stolen money could take up to 45 days to complete.
“I’m not sure if I’m getting my money back … It would be devastating and big loss for me and life would be turned upside down completely if I didn’t get it back,” he added.
“If something goes wrong, the bank should compensate me right now. I am happy to help and co-operate but I don’t need to wait. It’s a stressful and inconvenient time to wait to know what happens to my money.”
John said he also reported his nightmare to the police cyber crime unit and was told to register with Idcare – a not for profit charity that is Australia and New Zealand’s national identity and cyber support service.
“It was just putting extra salt on the wounds … I received an email and a link to charity to pick up food. I have an established life I don’t need to go to charity to get food when I trusted the bank with my money,” he said.
“It’s insulting to go through this much because I trusted the bank.”
A Medibank spokesperson said they were really sorry to hear about John’s situation and had reached out let him know the support available to him through their Cyber Response Support Plan, including identity protection, mental health and financial hardship measures.
“Our customers financial information, such as bank details and credit card details, were not accessed in the cybercrime,” they added.
Meanwhile, with his mortgage and credit card with the Commonwealth Bank John said he feels trapped and worried his money is unsafe.
“What happens if life goes back to normal and I put money in my bank account and at the back of my head I would be worried that it’s going to happen again unless they change something with their security,” he added.
A Ubank spokesperson said they can’t comment on individual cases due to privacy but encouraged customers to remain vigilant when it came to scams.
“We contact our customers who have notified us that money has been fraudulently withdrawn to discuss their individual circumstances,” they said.
A CBA spokesperson the bank invests in state-of-the-art fraud prevention and detection technology which is managed by a dedicated team.
“We review each case on an individual basis however it is widely recognised that scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated,” they said.
“Customers need to remain vigilant, protect their banking details and be smart about who they send money to.”
*Name changed for privacy reasons
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