Lloyds Banking Group initiates probe following reports from some of its Lloyds, Halifax, and Bank of Scotland clients who disclosed unauthorized access to other users’ transactions via the mobile app and online banking platforms.
According to a woman who spoke with the BBC, she was able to view the accounts of six distinct users on her Bank of Scotland app within a 20-minute timeframe. The transactions she observed reportedly included benefit payments from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) utilizing the recipients’ National Insurance numbers as references.
Moreover, she mentioned encountering payments from a pub in Newcastle and transactions to Waitrose, both unrelated to her location in Kirkcaldy, Fife.
Consumer advocate Martin Lewis highlighted receiving messages from individuals reporting similar incidents of accessing third-party transactions.
Numerous users shared experiences of witnessing unfamiliar payments before the app reverted to displaying their own financial activities.
The exact number of individuals impacted remains uncertain, given that Lloyds Banking Group serves approximately 26 million customers. The issue emerged around 7 am, coinciding with a surge in complaints on outage tracker DownDetector.
A spokesperson for Lloyds Banking Group expressed regret over the temporary disruption experienced by customers in viewing transactions on the app and reassured that the matter was promptly addressed with further investigations underway.
In a separate account, a woman conveyed feeling as though she had stumbled upon someone else’s financial affairs when she logged into her banking app and encountered unknown transactions. The customer expressed concerns over potential security breaches and questioned the app’s reliability in safeguarding personal financial information.
The unsettling experience raised doubts about the app’s security measures and the overall trustworthiness of the banking platform, leaving users questioning the integrity of their financial data.