Ards North Down Borough credit card targeted in attempted fraud of over £7,000

A Northern Ireland local council has reported an attempted fraud of over £7,000 on one of its credit cards.

Ards North Down Borough councillors received an investigation report, delivered at this week’s Audit committee, detailing two attempts to carry out fraud on a council credit card on December 6th last year.

The council’s bank Barclays conducted an investigation and found the fraud was perpetrated from the city Uppsala in Sweden.

The fraudsters tried to complete two transactions, each to the value of £3,602.95, for a fake company and website called ETravel.Icom.UK.

The council report states it was “very unlikely that a council computer was compromised/hacked” but Barclays “suspects a website that the council made a payment on in the two weeks prior was compromised.”

The report adds: “They are unable to investigate company websites which are not Barclays clients and therefore we cannot advise which website we suspect was compromised.”

Barclaycard internal controls identified both transactions as “outside the normal course of business for the council” and subsequently suspended the card.

The day after the fraud attempt the bank contacted the council to ask the card holder if the actions were genuine, but could not speak to the holder and suspended the card as a preventative measure.

The council has two credit cards, one for the Chief Executive, and one for the finance team. The report states: “Access to this second card is restricted to nominated finance staff excluding any of the banking signatories, and staff only use the card on secure websites. It is usual for one team leader or accountant to attend an annual cyber security workshop held by the bank.”

The Council heard the attempted fraud was traced to Uppsala in Sweden (Getty)

A council officer confirmed that the council lost no money. Councillor Wesley Irvine asked the officer was there a “weakness” in the council, given that the cardholder was not available to confirm to the bank there was a fraud.

The officer replied “We have taken steps with the bank in that regard to broaden the number of staff who can take queries and respond to these situations.”