Banks raise red flag on new IBAN phishing scam

Banks are warning consumers against online services that convert old nine-digit Dutch bank account numbers into IBAN codes, reports NOS. Banks stopped providing the service last month. Since then, the number of third-party websites offering conversion started to attract many more customers. "We cannot guarantee that these services are reliable," says Gijs Boudewijn from Payment Association Netherlands. "If you use these sites, you do so at your own risk." "It is possible for anyone who wishes to do so to make a website where they display their own account instead of the correct number," said Matthijs Huisman of IBANNL.org. The banks stopped providing their own conversion services since the beginning of April. The service cost banks several million euros per year because of a huge database of accounts that they had to keep in order to provide the service, said Boudewijn. He suggests that everyone simply memorize their own IBAN. "It is written on invoices, bank statements, most bank cards." "Our audience has increased tenfold since banks stopped conversion services," says Paul van Eijden of OpenIBAN.nl. "People still need to fill in their old account. We provide it."