John Culatto
A BANK in Gibraltar has agreed to refund worried customers who lost up to £2,000 each during a Christmas Day fraud attack.
Local residents were horrified to wake up and find that money had inexplicably drained out of their Natwest accounts.
At least 12 Natwest account holders reported losing a total of nearly £18,000 during the festive period, according to a Royal Gibraltar Police spokesperson.
At first, the large UK bank told customers that they would have to open a fraud case to get their money back.
Finally, on December 29, the bank agreed to refund stolen funds.
But Natwest said it would only return the cash as long as the fraud victims had not revealed their card details.
Gibraltar’s police force issued its own warning to residents about the online fraud attack.
“Please be aware that we’ve received several reports of bank fraud from NatWest Bank account holders, where money has been taken from their accounts,” the police tweeted.
“Customers are advised to check their bank accounts and report any suspicious activity to NatWest.”
The main high street bank on the Rock is currently investigating the source of the attack.
Its suspicions are that fraudsters got hold of people’s plastic card details to make the illegal transfers or purchases.
Natwest told account-holders who had lost money to immediately freeze their cards using their online banking tools and contact the 24-hour customer number.
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