Has anyone but me been following this topic ?

Go to www.bloomberg.com and look up the topic.

The SWIFT funds transfer system was hacked for about 18 Million Dollars (estimated) by fraudulent transfers to Bangladesh, apparently through a Philippines bank

An attempt (failed) to transfer funds to Vietnam was caught and stopped by a Vietnamese bank (the Vietnamese are not fools).

And apparently other banks, some in Asia, have also been the attempted victims by hackers who are attempting to illegally transfer funds.

It is not certain, but some experts believe the source of these fraudulent transfers is North Korea.

The hackers have apparently been using installed system malware to obtain illegally the permission to transfer funds.

So are you guys sure you will be able to do a SWIFT transfer to your bank in Thailand?

Most of us from USA use ACH transfers to Bangkok Bank as much cheaper. Did one today.

Given that a lot of the Bangledeshi money ended up in Phils casinos, I suspect organised crime rather than North Korea.

OP, just so we're clear, Bank of Bangladesh was hacked and the majority of the funds were transferred to the Philippines.

The failed attempts were blocked due to obvious discrepancies, i.e. spelling mistakes in the Swift messages and nothing to do with the Vietnamese not being fools, as the funds never got that far. Notwithstanding, the remaining funds were destined for Sri Lanka and not Vietnam.

Edited June 10, 201610 yr by wooloomooloo

OP, just so we're clear, Bank of Bangladesh was hacked and the majority of the funds were transferred to the Philippines.

The failed attempts were blocked due to obvious discrepancies, i.e. spelling mistakes in the Swift messages and nothing to do with the Vietnamese not being fools, as the funds never got that far. Notwithstanding, the remaining funds were destined for Sri Lanka and not Vietnam.

The money was actually fraudulently withdrawn from the Bangladeshi account at the The Federal Reserve of New York.

Mr Rahman submitted his resignation to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after it emerged that unknown hackers had stolen the money from the bank's account with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The theft happened in February, but Mr Rahman did not tell the government.

Finance Minister A M A Muhith said he had learnt of it from press reports.

According to media reports quoting banking officials, the gang behind the raid used stolen credentials to make requests to transfer cash look legitimate.

If all the requests had gone unchallenged, the gang would have got away with about $1bn.

However, the transfers were stopped when the volume of requests raised suspicions at other banks.

http://www.bbc.com/news/business-35809798

According to Reuters, the Bangladesh Bank has hired a lawyer from the United States to provide counsel on the possibility of suing the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, which fell for the cyberattacker's fraudulent scheme and permitted the bank's reserves to be transferred to mule accounts across Asia.