National Australia Bank is warning staff to be on the look-out for fraudulent use of cards in Internet and telephone transactions amid fears that it may have mailed out thousands of debit cards to the wrong addresses.
The bank has issued an urgent memo to staff about the problem after 15 customers complained that they had received other people's cards in the post. The memo states that staff should reassure customers that their money is safe and that the cards can't be used without PINs, which are mailed out seperately.
The bank is conducting an investigation into the administrative bungle. Re-issue cards are sent out at the end of each month in batches of 3000, and the bank has yet to determine whether the entire batch was corrupted.
The mishap has occured at a bad time for the Australian banking industry, which is struggling to maintain customer faith in the integrity of the banking system following a series of high-profile scams involving fraudulent Inernet bank sites and counterfeit card skimming.