Maria Komandnaya’s post: a cautionary tale

[This is an unsolicited, unauthorized, unapproved and unacknowledged translation I’ve done of Maria Komandnaya’s original untitled post published in Russian here. I used it as a launch pad for my own series of FB posts (in Russian and English) on fraud targeting the customers of Alfa Bank (Russia), the first of which is entitled “Альфа-банк: Спасение утопающих - дело рук самих утопающих?” and published here, and translated as “Alfa Bank (Russia): Sink or swim - we don't give a f*ck” here. I reference her post in many of my own, so I thought it only proper that I translate it for the benefit of my
anglophone readers. I’ve also piggybacked the links to my posts on to Maria’s post in my comments there. I hope Maria doesn’t mind and will think of my translation as a tribute to her effort, which I find admirable. She seems to have stopped paying any attention to comments on her post, so I think it no longer matters to her, and I didn’t want to bother her. Let’s say she kicked the ball, I’ve caught it and am running with it.]

My friends, I'd like to tell you about how phone fraudsters stole my money, how vulnerable our deposits are and how Alfa Bank responds to what happened.

I think this is an important story that can help somebody save their dough, so like, share and repost.

Last Wednesday I got a call from a guy who introduced himself as a security officer at Alfa Bank. He said that suspicious activity had been detected on my account, that attempts were in progress to withdraw a rather large sum of money from it. Naturally enough, I panicked and told him to freeze my account and all my cards right away. I was told that they needed to authenticate me first. The call didn't come from Alfa's number, so I found the whole thing rather suspicious. After that I phoned the bank, AND THEY CONFIRMED THAT I WAS DEALING WITH A SECURITY OFFICER. Then the same individual called me back from the bank's call centre and outlined what we were to do. We stayed on the line SOME THREE hours; the fraudster was very insistent that I keep the line open and not log into my account. Because he was logged into it instead of me. In the end, all the money was moved from my savings account to my current account. The swindlers closed my savings account. They froze my card, and then unfroze it — I don't know why. Yes, they asked for the [transaction authentication] numbers that were texted to my phone, but insisted that I not give those to them but only to Alfa Bank's special automated service. "Say the four digits after the double beep", and you're done. To be sure, if Alfa had not confirmed that I was dealing with a security officer, nothing of the kind would have happened.

I had 90 thousand roubles stolen from me, and I got off lightly at that — at some point, a dollar transaction was made for a large amount, but then it got cancelled because I got a call from the payment service provider used to transfer my funds. The fraudsters had all my details: passport info, domicile address; they saw how much money I had in my account and had access to my profile.

In the end I went to Alfa. They told me that I had dealt with swindlers, that they would RECREDIT me 90 thousand, and that the situation was unpleasant but not critical. On the very same day I went to the police and made a fraud report.

Yesterday I went to the bank again. At Alfa they said that I would get NO MONEY BACK and that it was now a matter for an investigator [police detective] to sort out. In other words, the money will apparently have to be recovered through a court of law, which is a drag.

I'm a VIP customer at Alfa and don't find that the bank is in the right. Now I'm thinking about one thing only: how to choose a bank that I can trust and that won't leak my data.

Last week I shared this story on Instagram. I started getting feedback from people who had fallen for the same confidence trick. Some had 200 thousand stolen, some 120, some 12. They were all Alfa customers. A friend of my friend had a million debited — he is a Sber[bank] customer.

Please take care, have your cards frozen the minute you get such a call, and go to the bank. This way you won't lose your money. Unlike me.

By the way. After I contacted the bank, I got locked out of my accounts and lost all online access (on the site and in the mobile app) for security reasons. That is, for more than a week I had no access at all to my money. My access was not reinstated until more than a week later.

But what really gets me is this. The bank makes every effort to get your business. But when you get a real problem that is the bank's responsibility, you are left out to dry. Just keep it in mind.