Hi, everyone- many of you may have heard that in the last few months Caja Madrid has had security problems with its internet banking. Some customers have had money transferred from their accounts without their knowledge. Scary stuff. I can confirm that it happens- it happened to me a few months ago, and I just discovered today that it has happened again. And yes, I’ve never given my codes out to anyone.
Has this happened to anyone on this board, and does anyone have any experience of getting their money back quickly? Or does anyone know what my rights might be in terms of getting Caja Madrid to reimburse me? The last time this happened, to their credit, it was actually the bank which called me and alerted me to what had happened. It took a month for them to give me my money back, though- which I thought was a scandalously long time. This time they’re not being quite so helpful, the guy I spoke to this morning even told me that maybe I had some sort of virus on my computer which was the source of the problem, and this last transfer wiped out most of my balance, so I’m kinda stuck.
In the meantime, a word of advice to everyone: if you can, avoid Caja Madrid and particularly, Caja Madrid internet banking! The fact that it happened twice to me in a span of six months points to a serious internal security problem, and the bank doesn’t have mechanisms in place to cope with both the security problem and the problems it causes customers.
(yeah, in case you’re wondering, I’d switch my account to another bank if I could, but for long and complicated reasons, I have to wait another month or so before I can do that.)
Posts: 132 | Location: Manila | Registered: 28 February 2004
Sunny my friend What more is going to happen???? I read this artical in the "Broadsheet" and a woman was complaining on the same problem like you have. If I recall well, forget about quickly.. The Broadsheet has kind of a business/legal help and she said they really help her. Tomas Leacy Spainwide Business Services tel/fax: 915471254 e-mail: t.leacy@arrakis.es
Age is a matter of mind, if you don't mind it doesn't matter.
Posts: 316 | Location: Israel >Madrid | Registered: 29 July 2004
hey Nava, i used to work with Tom on a few projects, he is good. surely he could help you sunny. his site is at http://www.spainwide.com and his office is central, on gran vía.
sunny, so crappy that happened to ya i have money in caja madrid and have for a while (or did last i checked months ago i only have like 100 euros there as my main account is at la caixa, will have to check if my 100 is stil there tomorrow after having read this.
i have had a mixed bag of experiences with caja madrid and used to have all my cash there but move to la caixa years ago and am MUCHO hapier there.
left 100 in caja madrid just to leave the account open as i have had it for about 10 years and it is good to build a good relationship with banks for many reasons i will not go into here.
i agree that a scare like this, no matter how much money was lost, is a more than good reason to BAIL THE HELL OUT!!!
hope you get this straightened up soon and let me know if i can do anything more to help.
Wow, really sorry to hear that this has happened to you. After reading your post I went to the bank to check my account since I have some of my money in Caja Madrid. Fortunately it was all there. It is worth mentioning that I do most of my banking with them in person rather than through the internet, although I do have the bank by internet option activated.
I have never had a problem with Caja Madrid, and as jer stated, it is good to build a good relationship with banks. Since Caja Madrid is one of our neighborhood banks, I use them and they are familiar with my business.
Could you give a bit more explanation about what happened in your sitiuation? Did you respond to one of those fraudulent emails that have been circulating?
For several weeks, if not months, Caja Madrid has had warning notices on its website about all the internet fraud that is happening... not just with them, but with hundreds of banks around the world (I get fraudulent emails almost daily and from banks that I don't even have an account with!!). Out of curiosity, I clicked on the link of one of them and was so completely surprised to see how well the fraudulent website had been designed. Very frightening indeed. Perhaps I have been more attuned to it since I have prepared many lesson plans around "identity theft" and online fraud.
Let us know what happened to you ... that will most likely help others who could fall victim to the same scheme!
The funny thing (if you can call it that) is that I’ve never gotten an e-mail from Caja Madrid asking to confirm any account information- although like you, Chica, I get these kinds of e-mails from other banks all the time, asking me to confirm my account number and PIN. Obviously I never responded to any of these.
One fine day in February, Caja Madrid called me and asked if I had made a transfer of about E 3000 to a certain Davis Fatov at a bank in Valencia. When I told them no, they said that such a transfer was made from my account, and they suspected that it may be fraudulent, the work of hackers, and that the same thing had happened to some other customers. They asked me to file a “denuncia” with the police, which I did. They also asked me a hundred times if I had received any e-mails soliciting my account information, and I told them yes but not from Caja Madrid or anyone pretending to be from Caja Madrid. A month later, without any explanations, they returned the money.
On 2 June, I logged on to Caja Madrid´s website to make a transfer to my landlady to pay the rent. When I checked my balance, I found out that the day before, a transfer was made to a Serhiy Markevych in Barcelona, for E 3150. I have no idea who this person is, and how this transfer was made. So I went back to Caja Madrid and explained what had happened, to the same manager I dealt with back in February. He said that as far as he knew, I was the only person to whom this had happened twice, and that they would have to investigate the situation.
I don´t think I could have done anything, security-wise, to prevent this problem (although I welcome suggestions). To everyone out there, I´d suggest:
1. Check your balances frequently, just so you find out quickly if anything fishy is going on. 2. Don´t give out any bank account information to anyone (duh). 3. Don´t do online banking or financial transactions of any kind in an internet café or other public terminal.
The only other lesson I´ve drawn from this is: avoid Caja Madrid—as I said in my original post, they have a security problem and they don´t appear to have policies in place to resolve these problems quickly. Yes I realize that security problems can occur anywhere, and I imagine they´re very difficult to resolve, but for it to take a month to get my money back is in my mind unacceptable. I asked the bank manager if, for security reasons, I could arrange beforehand to authorize internet transactions only to my landlady´s account, and he said no. Once I get my “papeles,” I know I´m changing banks. There´s a nice Banco Santander branch on the corner of San Vicente Ferrer and Fuencarral.
I´ll update this post next week as things get resolved, or not, as the case may be. Nava and Jer, thanks for the reference- I will get in touch with Tom if I don´t get a good response from Caja Madrid early next week.
Posts: 132 | Location: Manila | Registered: 28 February 2004
Just to report back how this got resolved: Today I got my money back! Took eight days from the time I discovered and reported the fraudulent transfer.
Initially Caja Madrid was quite coy about how long it would take to do this. I badgered them (politely but firmly) practically everyday, in person, telling them that I absolutely needed my money back. At some point, I actually told the bank manager "No quiero ser un gilipollas pero, por favor, no me diga usted que ésto tendremos que resolver de manera jurídica."
So I´m hugely relieved, but I´m still taking my money out of Caja Madrid as soon as I can.
Posts: 132 | Location: Manila | Registered: 28 February 2004
i have money in caja madrid and have for a while (or did last i checked months ago 
i only have like 100 euros there as my main account is at la caixa, will have to check if my 100 is stil there tomorrow after having read this.
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