Wonga informs up to 275,000 customers that they may have fallen foul of a cyber attack
Short-term loan specialists Wonga has become mired in fresh controversy this morning after it emerged that the firm had contacted as many as 245,000 UK customers (together with 25,000 from Poland) that they may have fallen foul of a cyber-attack.
According to City AM the breach was first detected last week when Wonga’s IT team first realized that they may have lost the name, email address, home address, phone number, bank account number and sort code of customers.
A Wonga spokesperson said: "Wonga is urgently investigating illegal and unauthorised access to the personal data of some of its customers in the UK and Poland. We are working closely with authorities and we are in the process of informing affected customers. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused."
The breach is the latest in a series of scandals which have hammered Wonga in recent years following a major restructuring and the imposition of fee caps and tighter lending criteria in the wake of consumer concerns.
Last may Google went so far as to ban the payday loan firms ads, citing their effect as 'harmful'.
Wonga is the latest in a long line of firms to fall foul of hackers including Lloyds Bank, Tesco Bank and TalkTalk.