Ineffective systems culminated in serious case of Covid fraud that cost UK taxpayers £800,000

Nationwide has been fined £44m by the City watchdog over “weak” financial crime controls that culminated in a serious case of Covid fraud that cost UK taxpayers £800,000.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) fined the building society for failures stretching over nearly five years. It said the lender had been aware that some customers were using personal accounts for business activity, in a breach of its own terms.

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© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

© Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian

Microsoft is warning of a scam involving online payroll systems. Criminals use social engineering to steal people’s credentials, and then divert direct deposits into accounts that they control. Sometimes they do other things to make it harder for the victim to realize what is happening.

I feel like this kind of thing is happening everywhere, with everything. As we move more of our personal and professional lives online, we enable criminals to subvert the very systems we rely on.

Longtime Crypto-Gram readers know that I collect personal experiences of people being scammed. Here’s an almost:

Then he added, “Here at Chase, we’ll never ask for your personal information or passwords.” On the contrary, he gave me more information—two “cancellation codes” and a long case number with four letters and 10 digits.

That’s when he offered to transfer me to his supervisor. That simple phrase, familiar from countless customer-service calls, draped a cloak of corporate competence over this unfolding drama. His supervisor. I mean, would a scammer have a supervisor?

The line went mute for a few seconds, and a second man greeted me with a voice of authority. “My name is Mike Wallace,” he said, and asked for my case number from the first guy. I dutifully read it back to him.

“Yes, yes, I see,” the man said, as if looking at a screen. He explained the situation—new account, Zelle transfers, Texas—and suggested we reverse the attempted withdrawal.

I’m not proud to report that by now, he had my full attention, and I was ready to proceed with whatever plan he had in mind.

It happens to smart people who know better. It could happen to you.

In this sense, the post-1990 monetary-policy regime contributed to global stability by ensuring that central banks remained focused on putting their own house in order. But can the cooperative model of global monetary policy survive in an age of geopolitical fragmentation? Will central banks remain independent and maintain their commitment to price stability above all? The answers will depend on the frameworks adopted to govern the interplay between fiscal and monetary policy in an increasingly conflictual world. from The Twilight of Bretton Woods by Giancarlo Corsetti [Project Syndicate; ungated]