For bank customers, it is a horror scenario: scammers use the access data for online banking and then clear the account empty. As the magazine “founder scene” now reports, it has hit a customer of the Berlin online bank N26 particularly hard. He was stolen not only 80,000 euros, the customer service of N26 apparently reacted for weeks not on the incident.
And that does not seem to be an isolated incident. The Consumer Centers are reporting further fraud involving N26. Almost every time, customers criticized the accessibility of the bank. Affected persons were consoled for weeks by customer chat or e-mail. Personally, employees were not available, a telephone service, the bank does not even offer.
N26 admits errors
N26 speaks of cybercrime, with which other banks are confronted. Fraudsters often get data through fake websites or ask customers by phone to divulge their access – so-called phishing. If the fraud flares up, block N26’s account and contact the customer. That last but not always works, admits N26. “Unfortunately, in some cases, we found that customers were not recalled immediately,” the company said on demand. This has now responded. The customer service has grown strongly in the past six months, in the department now had 400 employees to be active – just under half of all employees.
In addition, N26 had offered training for employees and set up a new team to monitor customer support. “That’s why we can ensure very good accessibility,” explains the company. Currently, customers would receive help on average in less than 30 seconds. In urgent cases, employees would call back. Whether the help is equally satisfactory, however, seems questionable. Especially fraud cases are often complex, N26 also knows. In some cases, the work-up may take several weeks, they say.
Not the first allegations
N26 is considered the flagship fintech of the capital. The company is growing rapidly: According to its own data, several thousand customers are added every day. Recently, the online bank even became the most valuable financial start-up in Europe, after the founders were able to raise another $ 300 million from investors. The goodwill of the online bank is now expected to amount to 2.7 billion dollars.
Before the now published allegations N26 was repeatedly criticized. Security experts accused the company of not adequately protecting customers. In 2016, a hacker exposed weaknesses in the smartphone app of the fintech. The computer scientist had managed to manipulate transfers and even take over entire accounts. No claims were reported, the company has resolved the vulnerability. But in October last year testers of the “Wirtschaftswoche” publicized another vulnerability. They had been able to open accounts with fake passports via online identification. And although the papers were supposedly made so bad that the fraud would have been noticed. The financial supervision Bafin then intervened.
Banks usually reimburse damage
In phishing cases, scammers often clear entire accounts. Whether the banks reimburse the damage incurred, depends on the individual case, knows Kerstin Föller of the consumer center Hamburg: “In general, the bank has to prove to the customer that he acted grossly negligent.” The institutes would often make it easy and on refer to their secure systems, which exclude a self-inflicted fraud, explains the financial expert. So far, in most cases of phishing, banks have come up with the damage they have suffered.
Also published on Medium.