More misery for TSB clients as fraudsters empty their accounts

TSB customers caught up in the firm’s online meltdown are now seeing their accounts raided by fraudsters trying to take advantage of the chaos.

A string of customers have logged into their online accounts to find their savings have disappeared in a series of payments they did not make.

They have then been left on hold for up to five hours when they tried to complain to the crisis-hit bank. Many have been left struggling for cash or unable to make crucial payments for weddings or house moves.

It is the latest crisis to hit the TSB after 1.9million customers were locked out of their accounts following a botched IT upgrade last month.

Last night, TSB insisted there had been no data breach.

But IT experts said it was possible criminals were using the weeks of chaos as an opportunity to target customers. One theory is that they are posing as members of bank staff to convince frantic account-holders to hand over their details, or are sending emails to victims embedded with computer viruses that allow the crooks to raid accounts.

Campaigners called on TSB to take action against the huge phone waiting times faced by fraud victims.

Justin Modray, founder of consumer advice website Candid Money, said: ‘This seems like an absolute mess. TSB needs to try to rectify things for customers who have been treated so badly during this fiasco.’

Most customers affected by the fraud appear to have had their accounts raided in the past week.

Teacher Ewan Monaghan had his savings snatched by fraudsters on Wednesday. He received an email from TSB congratulating him on a new overdraft that he had not requested. He checked his and his wife’s accounts and discovered they had been raided. He contacted TSB’s fraud department and was left on hold for an hour.

Mr Monaghan, 39, from St Albans, said staff then agreed to freeze his account but refused to block his wife’s unless she made a separate call herself, which involved another lengthy wait.

The thieves also ran up a £3,000 overdraft in Mr Monaghan’s name, and he says TSB is charging him interest on it. He said: ‘It is unacceptable for banks not to keep our accounts safe. TSB do not seem to be fussed about sorting this out.’

A 37-year-old woman from Edinburgh told Money Mail that she feared a house move would be put on hold after her £70,000 deposit was taken by crooks. She also said she was forced to wait for hours on the bank’s fraud line.

Nicki Joynes wrote on Twitter: ‘Okay, my 74-year-old dad sat in a branch for five hours yesterday and is back today, £1000s taken from ISA and you can’t understand how.’

Ben Alford said: ‘Our £8k wedding savings were stolen today.

‘Sadly it happened as I was on hold to their fraud department trying to report suspicious activity. When they answered 4.5 hours later, it was too late!’

TSB said: ‘We are reminding customers not to click on any links or messages which they receive that they feel are suspicious.’