How scammers tricked me into allowing them to add my N26 account to their Google Pay

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dustyie

Registered User
Messages
3
BE very careful of N26 ,... there is flaw in there banking app . My account got hacked and clean out .. 1100 euros .. when a seperate google pay account was open unknown to me... 11 transactions .. .. no notication was sent to my email or my phone no. .... after 6 months of formal complaints to n26 .. they refuse to refund me or listen to me . the german regulator Baffin .. don't enteraintain individual complaints ... I'm very sore over this .
An Irish customer
 
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BE very careful of N26 ,... there is flaw in there banking app . My account got hacked and clean out .. 1100 euros .. when a seperate google pay account was open unknown to me... 11 transactions .. .. no notication was sent to my email or my phone no. .... after 6 months of formal complaints to n26 .. they refuse to refund me or listen to me . the german regulator Baffin .. don't enteraintain individual complaints ... I'm very sore over this .
An Irish customer
Click to expand...

@dustyie

That is not a reason to avoid N26

It's most likely that you unwittingly authorised the GooglePay account yourself. Check out

Key Post - Can a fraudster add my debit card to their Apple Pay?

This comes up a lot in the complaints that someone doesn't use Apple Pay yet their card was used via Apple Pay in another country. This thread is very specific. It is not about people having their phone stolen and the thief accessing their credit cards. In the next post, I will set out the...
www.askaboutmoney.com
 
Brendan Burgess said:
@dustyie

That is not a reason to avoid N26

It's most likely that you unwittingly authorised the GooglePay account yourself. Check out

Key Post - Can a fraudster add my debit card to their Apple Pay?

This comes up a lot in the complaints that someone doesn't use Apple Pay yet their card was used via Apple Pay in another country. This thread is very specific. It is not about people having their phone stolen and the thief accessing their credit cards. In the next post, I will set out the...
www.askaboutmoney.com
Click to expand...

Thanks everyone for yer posts on my N26 ... i was caught out when i went to pay for eir bill online via my laptop and was ask for a verification on my mobile for payment (the eir website was a clever copy ) ... on hindsight i should have been more careful ... but like everyone my work load goes crazy certain weeks in the year .
but there is a definte a weakness in N26 systems no noticafication by email or text when changing phone no. or adding a google pay acc.

I have hold 3 different online banks cards for my business ... and i now transfer any large sums to my irish bank acc. within hours of lodgement .
this is a small inconvenieces to compare the stress and time in chasing the banks for my money.
I'm still a fan of these banks for there instant payments and easy of use for me and my customers and i will continue to used them cautiously.
take care now
safe banking :)
 
dustyie said:
Thanks everyone for yer posts on my N26 ... i was caught out when i went to pay for eir bill online via my laptop and was ask for a verification on my mobile for payment (the eir website was a clever copy ) ... on hindsight i should have been more careful ...
Click to expand...
So @Brendan Burgess was right?
Brendan Burgess said:
That is not a reason to avoid N26

It's most likely that you unwittingly authorised the GooglePay account yourself.
Click to expand...
 
Hi Dustiye

This is very interesting.

Could you do a step by step about what happened to help other people avoid this.

Maybe something like the following

1) I got a notification of a new bill from eir
2) I did not notice that it was a scam email
3) I logged onto the site to pay the bill
4) They sent a code to my phone
5) I entered the code on the website

What I did not realise is that I was dealing with scammers.
It was N26 who sent me the code but it was in response to the scammers asking for the code to add my account to their Googgle Pay
I sent them the code which allowed them to add my account to their phone.

6) They now made multiple transfers to other bank accounts?
7) But they had changed my phone number and so I received no notification

8) I discovered the fraud 3 days later when checking my account
 
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The phone number is by and large irrelevant when using N26. The account is linked to a specific phone and app.
Any transactions always require confirmation with the registered phone and app.
So even if your phone number is changed, it should not matter.
Registering a new phone without access to the currently active phone (because it is say kaput) is quite some process, including ID verifications, emails, etc.
Whilst not impossible of course that a bad actor got access to the account without the account holder's participation, it is much more likely that the account holder did unfortunately not pay enough attention.
 
So true. I work in tech, have done for years. Have even designed flows and processes around account registration, locking out scenarios, resetting access etc. Then one busy day....you know the rest. I was stupid, and pretty much as soon as I had done it and seen weird stuff happening, I knew.
In my case, it was someone taking control of my WhatsApp account.
 
Brendan Burgess said:
Hi Dustiye

This is very interesting.

Could you do a step by step about what happened to help other people avoid this.

Maybe something like the following

1) I got a notification of a new bill from eir
2) I did not notice that it was a scam email
3) I logged onto the site to pay the bill
4) They sent a code to my phone
5) I entered the code on the website

What I did not realise is that I was dealing with scammers.
It was N26 who sent me the code but it was in response to the scammers asking for the code to add my account to their Googgle Pay
I sent them the code which allowed them to add my account to their phone.

6) They now made multiple transfers to other bank accounts?
7) But they had changed my phone number and so I received no notification

8) I discovered the fraud 3 days later when checking my account
Click to expand...
Hi brendan
I cannot be 100% sure how the hack was done but i now believe
my laptop was being monitior over a period of time, it was an old laptop .
the eircom website address was a copy
and i was buying topup for a phone and
it some how ask for consent to add my details to a google pay which i consent ..
but the transaction didnt go through .... thought nothing of it and blame it on poor internet connection ..
i check my account before going to bed and all looks good .. and decide to buy credit in the shop in the morning ..
about two days later 11 transactions about went through unknown to me all done in one night .. no emails no texts to my phone .. discover the hack about 2 days later .

he had change my phone number also i believe ...
n26 refuse to give me details of where the money went ...
vague shop names ...( i presume all false) ....
he left about 50 euros in the account also ... which i thought to be strange ..
but i now know that n26 sent out account low alert at the 50 euro mark
 
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dustyie said:
Hi brendan
I cannot be 100% sure how the hack was done but i now believe my laptop was being monitior over a period of time, it was an old laptop .
the eircom website address was a copy and i was buying topup for a phone and it some how ask for consent to add my details to a google pay
which i consent .. but the transaction didnt go through .... thought nothing of it and blame it on poor internet connection .. i check my account before going to bed and all looks good .. and decide to buy credit in the shop in the morning .. about two days later 11 transactions about went through unknown to me all done in one night .. no emails no texts to my phone .. discover the hack about 2 days later .
he had change my phone number also i believe ...
Click to expand...
I fail to see how you can attribute blame to N26 for this debacle.
dustyie said:
n26 refuse to give me details of where the money went ... vague shop names ...( i presume all false) .... he left about 50 euros in the account also ... which i thought to be strange ..
Click to expand...
Doesn't your statement tell you where the payments went?
dustyie said:
but i now know that n26 sent out account low alert at the 50 euro mark
Click to expand...
What do you mean "I now know"? Why didn't you know at time?
 
dustyie said:
Hi brendan
I cannot be 100% sure how the hack was done but i now believe my laptop was being monitior over a period of time, it was an old laptop .
the eircom website address was a copy and i was buying topup for a phone and it some how ask for consent to add my details to a google pay
which i consent .. but the transaction didnt go through .... thought nothing of it and blame it on poor internet connection .. i check my account before going to bed and all looks good .. and decide to buy credit in the shop in the morning .. about two days later 11 transactions about went through unknown to me all done in one night .. no emails no texts to my phone .. discover the hack about 2 days later .
he had change my phone number also i believe ... n26 refuse to give me details of where the money went ... vague shop names ...( i presume all false) .... he left about 50 euros in the account also ... which i thought to be strange .. but i now know that n26 sent out account low alert at the 50 euro mark
Click to expand...

Have you submitted your complaint to the Bundesbank yet?
 
There is no grounds for complaint here as far as I can see.
To N26, the Ombudsman or the Bundesbank.

By all means, report it to the Gardaí as you were a subject of criminal fraud which took advantage of your own carelessness.
 
I think Google might have a small role to play in this type of scam

This can be confusing ...
1733918424175.png
 
ClubMan said:
Not really Google's fault if eir provide multiple different URLs to the same (?) payment page.
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That is true. Other banks seem to do the same - multiple sites for the same service - some old and no longer working too - its not hard to see how scammers could create a fake site and have it appear in the list of sites returned by google. They prey on confusion.
 
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