Hamilton Accies take legal action against RBS over £1m vishing fraud

The club’s board has instructed lawyers to write to the bank in a bid to recoup half of its losses after it was was targeted in a sophisticated scam last October.

On 9 and 10 October last year phone scammers convinced a Hamilton employee - who was the sole authorised user of the club’s Bankline accounts - to move money into 26 accounts to prevent theft.

The cyber heist or ‘vishing’ scam saw about 20 transactions amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds moved from the club’s accounts.

Hamilton said an initial two payments - of £40,000 and £70,000 - were suspended by RBS’s cyber security team.

But the club employee was convinced by the scammers to ignore the warnings and continue the transactions.

The following day £655,000 went out in 20 transactions.

Hamilton chief executive Colin McGowan confirmed the club managed to recover about £170,000 after the vishing fraud.

But the rest, about £800,000, remains outstanding.

Mr McGowan said: “We believe the bank have to look at their duty of care and their security.

“We are not claiming to be blameless but we have been the victims of a complex fraud and I don’t think it would have taken place if things had been different.

“As far as I am concerned there is proof positive that there was security lapses at the bank.

“It does not take Sherlock Holmes to work this out.”

A spokeswoman for RBS said: “The bank is confident that there has been no breakdown in our security procedures in regards to this scam and that no unauthorised persons were able to gain access to any of the club’s banking facilities.

“All payments were keyed and approved by the authorised user of the club’s account.

“The bank contacted HAFC to question the transactions on two separate occasions and the customer instructed the bank to continue with the payments.

“RBS is working with Hamilton Academical Football Club and supporting Police Scotland to identify the perpetrators of this scam.”