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PA Wire/PA Images

Tesco Bank freezes 20,000 UK accounts after fraud attack

Tesco Ireland confirmed that none of the 27,000 Irish Tesco Bank customers were impacted by the attack.

TESCO BANK IN Britain temporarily froze all online transactions today after around 20,000 customers had money stolen from their accounts after a cyber attack.

The bank, a subsidiary of British supermarket giant Tesco, the kingdom’s biggest retailer, said it was trying to refund accounts as quickly as possible.

“Tesco Bank can confirm that, over the weekend, some of its customer current accounts have been subject to online criminal activity, in some cases resulting in money being withdrawn fraudulently,” chief executive Benny Higgins said in a statement.

The bank confirmed that of its 136,000 current account holders, 40,000 had seen suspicious transactions over the weekend, while money had been fraudulently withdrawn from around 20,000 accounts.

No figure was given for the total amount of money involved.

Tesco Ireland confirmed to TheJournal.ie that none of the 27,000 Irish Tesco Bank Credit Card customers were impacted by the UK issue from the weekend.

Impact

Tesco shares dipped by 1.28% to 199.90 pence in early London trading, as London stocks rose by 1.3%.

“We can reassure customers that any financial loss as a result of this activity will be resolved fully by Tesco Bank,” said Higgins.

The retail bank is working with the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Financial Conduct Authority to address the security breach.

“It will be investigated and hopefully that will lead to action and arrests,” an NCA spokesman said.

The spokesman said cyber-attacks tended to vary in terms of sophistication so there was no set formula for dealing with them.

Higgins told BBC radio: “We invest very heavily in ensuring we have preventative measures in respect of this kind of fraudulent activity but in the modern world it’s impossible to be totally impregnable.”

Tesco Bank opened in 1997 and has 7.8 million customer accounts.

- © AFP, 2016

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    Mute Grim Reaper
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    Jan 19th 2015, 9:50 AM

    Just under 60 years ago this city was full of tram lines. We rip them all up and now spend billions putting them back down.
    Politicians haven’t a bloody clue.
    Ban the car and build DART underground now before it costs us tens of billions.
    Remember the west link toll bridge. Originally cost 60 million Punt. Total paid to date €1.2 billion and rising. Joke.

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    Mute Life in no motion
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    Jan 19th 2015, 2:45 PM

    The old tracks and new luas tracks are completely different gauges and wouldn’t have worked

    But don’t let something like that get in the way of a good rant….

    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dublin_United_Transport_Company

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    Mute Mike
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    Jan 19th 2015, 4:15 PM

    The Luas cost €1.1 billion in total including the docklands and saggart extension and the cross city works.

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    Mute trickytrixster
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    Jan 19th 2015, 8:42 AM

    How much extra will this cost me for the “disruption” to Dublin bus profits,extra 10c?

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    Mute Dave Murray
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    Jan 19th 2015, 9:22 AM

    Huh?

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    Mute Marko Burns
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    Jan 19th 2015, 10:22 AM

    Is there a time when they aren’t digging the hell out of Dublin? Place is like a building site yet again…

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    Mute Mike
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    Jan 19th 2015, 4:16 PM

    It will be worth it in the end. It will be a lot easier and faster to get around the city.

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    Mute jack frost
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    Jan 19th 2015, 11:26 AM

    Dublin aint pretty at the moment .

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    Mute Eugene Walsh
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    Jan 19th 2015, 8:41 AM

    Poor dubz.

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    Mute Mike
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    Jan 19th 2015, 8:45 AM

    The engine of the country will power ahead. Metro north and Dart underground next.

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    Mute Mary Kavanagh
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    Jan 19th 2015, 12:37 PM

    True, Jack Frost. But you know what they say, no pain, no gain.

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