Business | Banking
Channel Sponsor
Banks step up anti-fraud vigil
Banks in the UAE said on Thursday they will continue their vigilance against ATM fraud and some have reimbursed their clients who suffered losses.
- By Nadia Saleem, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:30 September 12, 2008
- Banks across the UAE have been warning customers against recent bank fraud.
- Image Credit: Gulf News Archive
Dubai: Banks in the UAE said on Thursday they will continue their vigilance against ATM fraud and some have reimbursed their clients who suffered losses in the recent wave of fraudulent card transactions.
Bank officials told Gulf News they are on top of the situation and keeping a close eye on automated teller machines (ATM) to prevent further fraud.
Some banks have also blocked international use of ATM cards as a preventive measure.
Emirates NBD, Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB) and HSBC said none of their cash machines have been tampered with.
"We continue to monitor the situation closely and are working with other banks and Visa on this investigation to resolve it in the next two days," said Suvo Sarkar, general manager of retail banking at Emirates NBD. He said that this would not continue for more than a few days.
The bank has reimbursed its customers who suffered losses. Those affected are a "small proportion of our customer base," he said, but declined to disclose the total cost incurred by the bank.
Dubai Bank, a Dubai Group company, said in a statement that 42 of their customers had been affected, and the claims will be refunded shortly.
Ala'a Eraiqat, ADCB deputy chief executive, said the bank is actively tackling the situation.
"All the clients who were affected were reimbursed immediately," he said. He added that the cost incurred is 'negligible.'
"The total amount could become higher but it is much less than Dh100,000 so far," Eraiqat said.
The bank is working with others to pinpoint the source of the problem, and is focusing on ATMs.
Banks have circulated advice to many of their customers to change their PINs (personal identification numbers).
"A substantial number of fraudulent transactions have been detected and stopped because custom-ers have changed their PIN," said Jonathan Campbell-James, head of security and fraud risk at HSBC Middle East. He added that only a small number of the bank's customers have been affected.
As some banks have been able to contain the fraud, more entities were added to the list of those caught in the security breach.
Dubai Bank, National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and Lloyds TSB Middle East, said that they will restrict international use of ATM cards.
While Dubai Bank will temporarily block international usage of ATM cards, Lloyds TSB will "halt some card activity in specific countries."
Role of insiders
The country's ATM card fraud could be the result of an insider involvement in the clearing network of card companies such as Visa or MasterCard, a software security expert said.
Richard Archdeacon, a Symantec official, said data can be stolen by a combination of techniques. "It could be a particular piece of software to track and monitor information and then send it out. Or, it could be snippet devices, that take information from the actual physical network and transmit it out wirelessly."
He said that there also could be insider activity as it is a tactic that has been used in other countries. Archdeacon also said that such incidents are well planned and do not occur often.
Share this article
Related Articles
-
Banks step up alerts over ATM card fraud
Banks step up alerts over ATM card fraud
-
Card fraud: UAE banks warn customers
Banks across UAE put customers on high alert after card fraud
-
Leading banks play down card fraud
Leading banks across UAE play down fallout of card fraud
-
Lloyds urges precautionary measures
Lloyds urges customers to change pin amid fraud reports
-
Dubai Bank cuts off ATM use
Dubai Bank cuts off ATM use amid card fraud activities
More from Banking
More from Business
Popular in Business
-
Budget travel
Airlines in the region
Take a pictorial look at some of the budget airlines in GCC
Business Editor's choice
-
Credit swaps... a fair trade
Would you swap an unbuilt unit at the Lagoons for an apartment at JBR?
-
New face of safety
Volvo reveals a sleeker S60, ready to hit the roads early next year
-
When the Web lives worldwide
Cutting-edge firms are building massive data facilities all over the globe
