According to Al Rai newspaper, dozens of local bank account holders have been victim of hackers through fabricated payments on their credit cards in the past two weeks. The banks informed the Cybercrime Investigation Department about the customers’ complaints and exposure to fraud, which were processed through e-mail and remote access through mobile applications. The fraudulent operations have become widespread, in which the aim is to steal bank data through phone calls and text messages.
Moreover, sources pointed out that all financial fraud operations registered with banks were sent in email addresses, claiming that the post came from the Ministry of Communications or the courier companies DHL and Aramex to mislead customers. The fraudulent message says that the recipient’s shipment has arrived, and that this must be processed by clicking on the notification link and paying a fee of 1.5 dinars, explaining that customers who coincidentally await the arrival of a shipment by express mail are more likely to fall victim to this fraud. Once the customer clicks on the bank account data, especially the information that comes by mail to accept payment, the real withdrawal process would begin, which may exceed the value of the specified fee a thousand times.
The report said that the banks led a technical move to recover the withdrawn amounts, noting that according to the complaints, the value of the amounts withdrawn in these operations by hackers varied between a minimum of 300 dinars and a maximum of 1500 dinars per operation. The banks of the victimized account holders are recovering about 80 percent of the amounts that were stolen, after coordinating with the Visa and MasterCard companies to stop the completion of payment operations as international rather than local payments.
In addition, the report mentioned that if the fraud took place without the customer providing all his account data, the bank could recover the stolen amount within 10 to 45 days, but in the case of sending the verification code for credit cards known as “OTP”, it is difficult for the bank to recover the stolen amounts or classify them with the international payment institutions as a valid payment process that was carried out at the full will of the customer.
Banks called on customers to take precaution with suspicious apps and electronic links, indicating that simply downloading the app or clicking on the link exposes the customer’s confidential banking data to the risk of theft and loss of money. According to the source, banks are doing efforts to confront the rapid increase of phishing operations, and spending millions annually in order to fortify their systems through strong cyber security programs and systems to protect customers and electronic payment operations, while customers are required to protect their banking data and mobile devices.
Hackers use cunning tricks to obtain customer data by promoting mined applications that promise users attractive profits and returns, or by imitating apps of famous major companies to persuade customers to enter their banking data and passwords. DHL and Aramex have previously warned of attempts to defraud online shoppers through the unauthorized use of their names and trademarks in email communications and graphics that appear to come from them. The companies have confirmed that they will not ask to provide any personal information or payment data through traditional mail or electronic mail.
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