Chief Executive of HBOS, the UK's 4th largest bank, has had his identity stolen and accounts plundered by fraudsters.
It has emerged that the Chief Excutive of HBOS, Britain’s biggest mortgage lender, has fallen victim to ID fraud.
Andy Hornby, who has held his senior position with the bank since Halifax and the Bank of Scotland merged in 2006, is said to have had his accounts frozen after an impostor managed to withdraw over £7,000 ($14,000) in a single day.
HBOS staff reportedly had to contact the Chief Executive while he was on holiday to notify him that his accounts had been breached. However, investigators are still thought to be in the process of carrying out a thorough check of Hornby’s accounts in an attempt to discover the exact amount that was taken.
While HBOS have so far declined to comment on the alleged scam, it’s believed that the fraudster was able to masquerade as the Chief Executive both over the telephone and in person using one of Hornby’s old bank statements as ‘confirmation’ of his name and address. It is not known how this came into his possession.
The fraudster is also though to have been caught on camera withdrawing funds from Hornby’s account from an ATM.
Speaking to a British newspaper an unnamed source revealed: "They think the thief is from a Nigerian background. He certainly looks nothing like Andy. It appears he used one of Andy’s statements as proof of name and address in a branch."
"He also phoned a call centre to open an account with the details but it still didn’t click, and he took cash from a hole-in-the-wall."
Continuing "It’s hugely embarrassing for the head of a banking group to be so lax with personal information that someone can steal his identity. "
While such a high profile case of identity fraud does bring home the risk of this unseen crime, Horby is not the first bank executive to have been targeted in this manner. Barclays Chairman Mangus Agius is also known to have fallen victim in 2006 when impostors managed to illegally obtain £10,000 from his bank accounts.
