back to article Ryanair stung after $5m Shanghai'd from online fuel account

Budget airline Ryanair has fallen victim to a $5m hacking scam. Crooks siphoned off money from an account earmarked for the payment of fuel bills via an electronic transfer to a bank in China last week. The transfer was subsequently blocked, but the funds – earmarked to pay for aviation fuel for Ryanair's 400-plus Boeing 737- …

  1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

    Well... color me surprised...

    My guess would be that the budget allocation for Internet Security is comparable in priority to the budget allocations for Customer Care, compliance with disability law and a few others like that. That would explain it.

    1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

      Re: Well... color me surprised...

      And so it should be if the loss is still detected, reversed and the money returned.

      If you have a contract with the bank which says that they are liable then you don't bother wasting money making your operations less efficient in the name of security.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Well... color me surprised...

      My guess is that the "hack" was much simpler. I work for a company where the FD received a notification letter from a supplier informing him that the supplier was switching banks, and that all BACS payments after a certain date were to be made to the new details. A few months later, the supplier contacted the FD asking for payment of bills. Turns out £250k had been paid into accounts in china that were not the suppliers.

      I think nowadays the procedure is that bank or delivery details are not changed unless someone physically visits a contact they know, who then personally verifies the authenticity of any communication asking that they be changed.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I guess they know how their customers feel each time they have the audacity to pay by credit card.

  3. cs94njw

    This made me giggle.

  4. billse10

    hopefully ...

    their bank charged them for processing the refund application, extra as it was quite heavy, and if they wanted payment by anything other than debit card who knows what it should cost them ...

    1. Christoph

      Re: hopefully ...

      But how the feck are they supposed to pay if not with fecking plastic?

  5. AbelSoul
    Pint

    Couldn't have happened to a nicer firm

    There are very few companies that I refuse to have any further dealings with but that bunch thieving liars are one of them.

    Aaahhhh, Shadenfreude!

  6. lawndart

    says

    Have they tried looking for their money in another, entirely different bank some 20-30 miles from where they expected it to be?

    1. Anonymous Blowhard

      Re: says

      Only 20-30 miles? Try flying to Frankfurt-Hahn, it's halfway to feckin' Luxembourg!

  7. cantankerous swineherd
    Pint

    hope the investigators leave no stone unturned and give the guy a medal when they find him.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Oh dear.

    How sad.

    Never mind.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oh well...

    ...whatever, nevermind.

  10. nsld

    Of course

    If Joe or Paddy Public gets an account emptied the Economic crimes unit will allocate just as much in resources to get it back, oh wait, no they won't!

    As for Ryanair getting the shaft its almost karmic

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Of course

      I misread you: "As for Ryanair getting the shaft its almost karmic" - but it's karmic and comic(al) ..

  11. akeane

    That money...

    ... is just resting in someones account

  12. Cuddles

    Blocked?

    "The transfer was subsequently blocked, but the funds... are yet to be recovered."

    If the transfer was blocked, why would they need to recover anything?

    1. crayon

      Re: Blocked?

      "If the transfer was blocked, why would they need to recover anything?"

      Banks being banks will make sure money takes 3 or more days to electronically transfer from account to account, and they use this time to gamble the money on stocks or currency markets making the money work for them not for you. So to answer your question, the money has left Ryanair's account but is taking the scenic route through the stock exchange via the currency markets before it eventually makes it back to Ryanair.

      FTW banks in China are required by law to ensure transfers, even between different banks, are completed the same day.

  13. hi_robb

    I'm betting

    the bank was no where near China, that's just where they're telling us it went...

  14. Stork

    Ryanair - cheap in every sense of the word!

    - not that I can complain, they get an awful lot of our customers here. And anyway, €5M is only a couple of days worth of check-in fees, right?

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