Aussie blocked from her own account exposes bank's 'insane' request to unblock it

An ING customer is urging banks to rethink their fraud processes after she said she was blocked from her bank account and unable to access her money for days due to two innocuous transactions. Katie McMaster has been a long-time customer of the digital bank, which is one of the biggest in the country.
The Melbourne resident received an email from the bank's fraud department on Tuesday saying her account had been suspended due to 'suspicious activity'. She immediately contacted ING and was told she needed to wait for the fraud team to contact her via email and she couldn't speak to them on the phone.
The 35-year-old told Yahoo Finance she had to verify her identity over email and had to reply with her full name, date of birth and mobile number.
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'I just thought that was insane in itself to be sending that data across email to verify. For a bank of their size, I just thought that shouldn't be the process, especially when you're trying to get in touch with the fraud department,' she said.
She was later sent a verification text from the bank and told to upload her identification. After that, she said she heard nothing from the bank and was still unable to get someone on the phone. She was told the fraud team could take two business days to respond.
Meanwhile, the personal assistant was unable to access her funds, use her card or get money out. She said she had to rely on her credit card for funds, which ING did not block.'It was stressful in the fact that I could obviously see the balance, but the available balance was zero,' she said.
'But what was sort of frustrating was that they didn't block my credit card with them. They were happy for me to keep using my credit card, but then I would have to pay interest on that, but they wouldn't let me access my funds, and I couldn't withdraw any cash.'
It wasn't until 5pm on Thursday that she received an email from ING asking her to verify two transactions flagged as suspicious. They were her monthly salary, which goes into her account at the same time each month, and a $300 transfer from a friend for Usher tickets.
After she confirmed the purpose of the funds, she finally received a call from the ING fraud department, and they were able to unblock her accounts "on the spot".
McMaster said the worker she spoke to was confused why the transactions had been flagged as suspicious and apologised for taking so long to resolve the issue. She claimed she was the only one manning the fraud email inbox.
'The lack of communication was frustrating me the most. I understand banks have their processes, but I'd rather sit on hold for an hour knowing I'd get through than wait a couple of days,' she said.
An ING spokesperson told Yahoo Finance safeguarding customers' funds and identities was "central" to how it operated.
"When our systems detect suspicious transactions, we proactively act on behalf of customers to protect their funds. This often involves temporarily placing a hold on a customer's account until we can confirm the transactions with the customer," the spokesperson said.
"To reactivate account activity, we verify the customer's identity through our secure fraud portal. During this process, the customer's biometrics are matched against the identity documents we securely hold on record.
"We recognise that temporarily pausing activity on an account can impact customers, so we always check they have access to essential funds, ensuring they are not placed in financial hardship."
McMaster shared her experience online and was met with hundreds of responses from other Australians, with several others saying they also had their ING accounts blocked.
"This happened to me in 2019, I was overseas and there was no help. For the rest of my trip I had to use a friend's money to be able to pay for anything. They cancelled the card and that was it," one wrote.
"Same happened with me! You feel so vulnerable not being able to get access to money! Luckily, I was able to borrow cash from someone because you literally can't get access to any money, it's crazy," another said.
"It's actually terrifying that they can do this," a third added.
Others agreed they would feel uneasy about providing their personal information over email.
"I'd refuse to send personal details over email, that's ridiculous!!" one said. "It's a very odd process for fraud verification, and goes against our basic security instincts ... It adds even more stress and confusion to the situation," another said.
McMaster said she was now in the process of changing banks and was considering opening up accounts with multiple banks to avoid getting stuck in the same position.
She has called on ING and other banks to reconsider their fraud verification processes, including the requirement for customers to provide sensitive information via email.
'The main concern of all of this is the verification process. It was just having to click on a link to upload my ID from a text message. It's just everything we're told not to do,' she said.
She has urged other Aussies to continue to remain diligent when it comes to scams and to double-check any messages received were legitimate.

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