Fake texts say accounts overdrawn

BNZ customers are concerned about the safety of their funds after receiving suspicious text notifications from the bank.

Auckland customer Joanna Paul received a text notification this morning that said her ‘‘wonderful account’’ was overdrawn by $10,000. The problem was, she didn’t have an account by that name, but she went immediately online to check anyway. None of her money had been withdrawn and when she called BNZ, the person on the phone told her they had been fielding similar calls from customers all morning and it was just ‘‘spam’’.

‘‘I said to him, this is not spam. You’ve been hacked and your database has either been stolen or sold and now your customers are being contacted with erroneous, disturbing texts that make one immediately go to one’s account,’’ Paul says.

She says it is shocking that customers have not been notified yet and it was as if the bank was ‘‘scurrying around’’ trying to fix the problem before news got out.

BNZ spokeswoman Nicole O’Brien says a system error caused a ‘‘small number of customers’’ to receive ‘‘routine text and email alerts for accounts that did not belong to them’’. She says BNZ apologises for the inconvenience.