BOI app down ?

[Brendan Burgess]

I thought there was a punchline coming. There wasn’t. This actually happened. Incredible.

Here is an article on the topic

Questions remain over gardaí monitoring ATMs - ICCL

Questions remain about why gardaí were on the streets monitoring ATMs following a Bank of Ireland technical issue on Tuesday night, the Irish Council for Civil Liberties has said.

www.rte.ie

Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, the Executive Director with the ICCL said there must be a clear legal basis if gardaí are involved in actions that restricts people rights', movement or ability to access to finance.

...
He added that a question remains about what guards did when they attend the scenes, as there was footage on social media of gardaí physically blocking of ATMs.

Mr Herrick asked how a guard at an ATM would have any information to provide financial advice to people about their legal basis for accessing money.

 

[redstar]

Hi Sunny

Were BoI customers able to see the app and online banking on Tuesday to check their balances?

My understanding is that they were not able to do so.

Brendan

I was able to use the mobile app at lunchtime (130pm) to check a card balance. I revisited the app at 2pm as there was some details missing from the transaction. The app was unresponsive, as was the web browser site. So i guess it went down just after around 2pm.

 

[E30chick]

Hi Sunny

Were BoI customers able to see the app and online banking on Tuesday to check their balances?

My understanding is that they were not able to do so.

Brendan

I could.

I get paid on the 15th of every month. My wages normally do not hit my account until around 11am as they come from a HSBC account.
On the morning of the 15th my wages were in the bank when I checked at 7am.
I made payments to other accounts / Revolut and BOI credit card at 08.39am from my BOI account.

I lost access to my online account at from around midday (I think can't really confirm that time) onward as I wanted to make another movement that I forgot to do and I couldn't.

 

[Sunny]

By the way, following BOI on twitter is interesting this morning

BOI: All accounts are now up to date

Multiple small businesses: my employees have still not been paid

Multiple people: mine isn't. Still haven't got my wages.

Also people they had money taken of them for no reason. People are also saying they had money that wasn't theirs but it is now gone plus more even though they didnt touch it. Backs up the Irish Times saying people did get money in their accounts.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

@Sunny

Can you give me a link to the source for this?

I see some people responding to BoI on Twitter

https://twitter.com/talktoBOI/status/1692083974770765959

 

[Sunny]

https://twitter.com/CharlotteO1512/status/1692074568192504159?t=SR4seQqlMn9rngrCudHIng&s=19

There are few stories like this tweeting BOI with three same thing. People seem to be missing money.

Hard to know what the reality is. Big mess.

 

[ClubMan]

@Sunny

Can you give me a link to the source for this?

I see some people responding to BoI on Twitter

https://twitter.com/talktoBOI/status/1692083974770765959

This?

https://twitter.com/talktoBOI/status/1692083974770765959?s=20

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Hard to know what the reality is.

Agree but I would not consider a tweet like this to be reliable evidence of anything

I didn't touch the money that went into my account, yet somehow this morning my balance is -€651

What money went into her account?
And if she can see her balance, can she not see the transactions?



Brendan

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Why did people queue up at BoI ATMs?

Were they not able to withdraw the cash at other ATMs?

Brendan

 

[Sunny]

Agree but I would not consider a tweet like this to be reliable evidence of anything

I didn't touch the money that went into my account, yet somehow this morning my balance is -€651

What money went into her account?
And if she can see her balance, can she not see the transactions?



Brendan

True but there are multiple tweets saying the same thing. About money been debited for no reason.
Same with people saying their wages haven't been credited.

All this despite BOI coming put saying all was resolved. Doesnt appear that way.

Also despite all its flaws, I have found twitter to be more reliable and quicker source to see if there is an issue with a bank than the banks themselves.

I am with BOI and I don't have any issue but had no credits or debits due the last couple of days.

 

[Sunny]

Why did people queue up at BoI ATMs?

Were they not able to withdraw the cash at other ATMs?

Brendan

They were. It's because they are idiots and they thought the BOI ATM machines were giving free money....

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Same with people saying their wages haven't been credited.

Fully accept that this has happened and expected transactions have not been been processed yet. No issue with that.

But there are two other claims which I would like to verify.

1) That people had unexplained lodgements to their accounts on Tuesday

1. Did this actually happen?
2. If it did, how did they know on Tuesday that it happened?

2) BoI has debited money from people's accounts yesterday or today for no apparent reason.

I get unexplained lodgements and debits to my AIB account from time to time, but usually I can find out that it's something I have forgotten about.

Brendan

 

[Towger]

Eh? The online system went down so they overrode the system? How does that work?

So you are saying because banking 365 went offline, it brought down the ATMS (odd in itself) but BOI somehow overrode the system failure to allow access to ATMs???

That's not how banking works.

ATM machines can be put into payout money mode, if they cannot connect to the back end system. This nothing new, it probably happens from time to time but no one notices. UB relied on this for days when they botched a system update and had no backup. It took years and multiple court cases for them to get some money back. A number of customers were running around from machine to machine taking out 500 euros a go.

 

[LLB123]

Based on the sudden appearance of ‘surprise money’ in some accounts, sounds for sure like some kind of Robin Hood hack that put 1k into empty or low-level balance accounts and the bank shut down the online system as a result. The so-called app issue was a fix attempt, not the trigger?

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Based on the sudden appearance of ‘surprise money’ in some accounts, sounds for sure like some kind of Robin Hood hack that put 1k into empty or low-level balance accounts and the bank shut down the online system as a result. The so-called app issue was a fix attempt, not the trigger?

So the surprise money arrived before the system went down?

Do you have any evidence for this?

Brendan

 

[Towger]

1) That people had unexplained lodgements to their accounts on Tuesday

1. Did this actually happen?
2. If it did, how did they know on Tuesday that it happened?

2) BoI has debited money from people's accounts yesterday or today for no apparent reason.

'Unexplained lodgements/debits' is a standard feature of BOIs internet banking system. Normal only seen if you login late in the evening. This occurs when they re-sync with the main database.

 

[LLB123]

So the surprise money arrived before the system went down?

Do you have any evidence for this?

Brendan

No, I’m merely speculating based on the what’s already been said, same as everyone else. Seems to me like the shut-down was a response to something, rather than the cause.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

Towger

Could you explain that a bit more.

Are you saying that they credit money to people's accounts and then take it away again without leaving any record?

Brendan

 

[LLB123]

I had heard that and would like to verify it. Would you have a link to any of these discussions?

Part of the general Twitter chatter on Tues night under the trending hashtag at the time.

 

[Sunny]

ATM machines can be put into payout money mode, if they cannot connect to the back end system. This nothing new, it probably happens from time to time but no one notices. UB relied on this for days when they botched a system update and had no backup. It took years and multiple court cases for them to get some money back. A number of customers were running around from machine to machine taking out 500 euros a go.

never heard of it to be honest. When Ulster Bank messed up because they upgraded a scheduler agent that ran their batch jobs and customer balances were not updated for weeks, they didn't allow people to just withdraw what they wanted. It's not a slot machine. Ulster bank allowed people to go into a branch if the atm were not allowing them withdraw and withdraw money based on a payslip that had not been credited. At no stage were people able to go into unauthorised overdraft and continue to take cash out of an ATM. They were allowed to withdraw money if the balance was wrong said they had money which is no different to what happened here.