New-style Bank of Bermuda cards which include the owner?s account number have sparked fears that customers are more vulnerable to wire fraud.

And Police sources have revealed international conmen fleeced customers out of nearly $2 million through wire frauds against Bermuda banks in the past year ? although in one case all but $30,000 of a $900,000 fraud was recovered.

Bank of Bermuda customer April Pitcher said she was shocked that her new debit card had her account number on it and she was not reassured by claims from staff she was at no risk. She said: ?If my card is stolen and the thief knows that HSBC attaches checking/saving account numbers to debit cards then all they have to do is send a phishing wire to the bank by fax and ?voila? my money is gone.

?Please don?t tell me if the signature doesn?t match my account then it will be rejected. That is how it would work in a perfect work environment.?

But she said she signed messy signatures which were rarely identical.

?A half smart thief will not even have to steal my card to get my checking account number ? just write it down quick.?

Ms Pitcher, from St. George?s, is also upset the Bank will not guarantee a debit card against theft as they do with a real credit card.

She said: ?How am I going to be protected on the new-fangled system that the bank is rolling out on October 16 when both my charge and checking account numbers are on the same card?

?Regardless of whether this is a usual practice in Europe and Asia, it is an unsafe practices and I want my account number removed from my debit card.?

Michael Collins, Head of Banking Services for the Bank of Bermuda said: ?Customers should bear in mind the information displayed on their debit cards is no more revealing than what is displayed on personal cheques, which not only has the customer?s account number and signature but often their home address. ?With this in mind, customers should rest assured that Bank of Bermuda employs a number of defences to prevent phishing attacks and documentation fraud. ?To protect the integrity of these anti-fraud controls we are not at liberty to go into any further detail.?

However one Police source said breaches occurred when banks did not follow the correct procedures. Recently fake faxes claiming to be from the US Inland Revenue Service have been flooding the island.

Fraudsters have scooped up bank and identification details and signatures and then sent faxes to try to get funds wired overseas.

The fraudster has impersonated the victim and claimed to be overseas on business or vacation in an attempt to explain why they are not contactable on their normal number.

Sometimes the rip-off merchants give themselves away by calling from parts of the world where wire fraud attempts are rife such as West Africa.

The Police source said: ?They use satellite phones with an area code for West Africa.?

Criminals targeting Bermuda accounts have been based all over the world including Japan and India.

The source said victims get their money back as long as they were not to blame for the information being compromised. Vital bank information is often pieced together from a number of sources before a con is attempted. Prominent businessmen?s signatures can be copied off their company?s annual report while dumpster diving to retrieve information off bank statements and receipts is a popular in some parts of the world.

Often the con-men don?t siphon in the money directly but have it sent to a legitimate business to pay for goods they have bought. The process makes it even harder for the money to be retrieved when an innocent third party has been caught up in the swindle.