Alfa Bank (Russia): green light for fraudsters? Part 2

Alfa Bank customer data leaks


Originally published as "Альфа-банк - «зеленая улица» для мошенников? Часть 2-я" here. 


As promised in my last post, today I will look into the leak of the customer database from Alfa Bank.

As I found out when looking up bank fraud online, last year the media published a number of reports about Alfa Bank's customer database being offered for sale on the dark web. See, for example, here or here. 

In and of itself, this does not prove that Alfa Bank is at fault in any way – bad shit happens, but Alfa Bank decided to hide this both from the public (to be fair, it may simply have been unaware of it) and from its customers once this fact was established and covered by the media and the database was sold. The bank bombards us with communications by telephone, email, SMS messages and push notifications in the mobile app – these are usually sales pitches for all manner of credit products. Yet Alfa Bank did not find it necessary or advisable, however, to disclose the leak-related threat to the security of its customers' deposits. If I had just known, for example, that my personal data were sold from Alfa Bank, that somebody could phone me like that, address me by my name and patronymic, pretending to be from Alfa Bank, give my card number and in so doing worm their way into my confidence, I would never have let the fraudsters lead me by the nose. I don't know whether Alfa Bank was required to notify me of it by law, the RF CB regulations or industry rules and standards or security practices. This is a matter for the courts to decide when I take legal action, but not until after I have explored all other avenues to bring pressure to bear on Alfa Bank, including the foreign media. 

As my first step on the warpath, I filed a complaint with the RF CB, where I reported what I had found and offered my take on the issue. The complaint can be downloaded here [in Russian] (to be translated). The CB, however, threw it out the next day without considering it on the merits, brushing me off with some boilerplate on the National Payment System, though my complaint was about the CB Fast Payment System, which I pointed out in my feedback to the bank in its response rating form. I published this response from the CB here [in Russian] (to be translated).

Frankly speaking, I was quite happy with the outcome of my first shot across the bow because what I really wanted was a reason for writing to the RF President in order to tell him, apart from the matter at hand, about myself and what I think of his performance as the leader of Russia. 

My letter to the President was passed by the Presidential Executive Office on to the Bank of Russia to be dealt with on the merits, which surprised me, but on second thoughts the move seems quite logical. 

To find out what happened as a result, read my subsequent posts. #AlfaBankFraud


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