Functionality of co-badge giro cards manipulated – tens of millions debited

Fraudsters are said to have debited tens of millions of euros from more than 100 Commerzbank (https://commerzbank.de) accounts using special girocards. “In a few individual cases, unauthorised debits were made from customer accounts for technical reasons by a service provider,” the company is quoted as saying in a Handelsblatt report.

“No damage for customers”

Germany’s second-largest private bank is trying to appease the situation. Affected customers will be informed and bookings will be corrected by the bank. The bank assures customers that they will not suffer any damage. According to unnamed financial insiders, the fraud is said to have been carried out using girocards with a Maestro function from the US company Mastercard.

The fraudsters apparently used the function for foreign payments on the cards and manipulated this so-called “co-badge” functionality. Explosive: Commerzbank’s co-badge giro cards are managed by Bank-Verlag (https://www.bank-verlag.de). The Cologne-based company has already confirmed that it has been the “victim of a case of fraud involving Maestro payments”.

Bank-Verlag apparently hacked

“The security gap was closed immediately after the fraud case was discovered by Bank-Verlag as part of the internal control system,” said Bank-Verlag. Nevertheless, a sour taste remains – especially for customers. “We will only be able to provide information on claims settlement once the loss has been fully clarified.”