Problems with ING

Hi Scott,

Last week my husband and I were hit by scammers, who “ported” (transferred) all our business mobiles from Telstra.

We contacted Telstra, who assured us that our mobiles could be recovered, and that they would report the matter to their fraud department. Little did we know what was to happen next … The scammers found our details on social media, and once they knew our dates of birth and address they hit all our bank accounts.

Thankfully, ANZ and CBA blocked them first go. Yet ING gave them access to all our accounts! With ING, all the scammers needed was to recover the customer number: there were no security questions asked — maiden name, school I attended, favourite pet, nothing!

All our savings, including our redraw facility, were drained within three days: a total of $15,000.

ING does have an “online security guarantee” but they are not honouring it because we did not notify them on the day our mobile was scammed!

I know you are one of their biggest supporters, but after banking with ING for 15 years (and I must admit it’s the best little savings account I’ve ever had) I’ve now lost all respect for them.

Please help me to get ING to upgrade their security. After all, what are the security questions for if you don’t need to use them?

Gina

Hi Gina,

What a horrible situation!

Now let’s get a couple of things clear:

First, I have zero association with ING, other than being a fellow customer.

Second, what you’re talking about is identity fraud, which affects thousands of people (and every major bank).

Still, I called ING and asked them, “Why doesn’t ING ask security questions like the other banks do?”

They told me that they have disabled their online retrieval function, which means that they now force customers to call the contact centre, where they are faced with additional security questions.

They also assured me they had a dedicated team that constantly monitored and updated their security. Finally, it is totally outrageous that they declined to refund you … so I asked them about that too. Thankfully, they have now agreed to fully reimburse you for your losses. As they bloody well should.

Scott

Reminder: I first wrote about this years ago and highlighted the low fees. Today there are better bank accounts on offer. How do I know? Because my readers constantly email me about them! So before you do anything, google the best accounts on offer now.