UAE | General
Man loses Dh2,000 in 'Phishing' attack
An American academic got a rude shock when he woke up from sleep to see four SMS's stating that recharge transactions worth Dh2,000 had been done from his MashreqOnline account
- By Jay B. Hilotin, Chief Reporter
- Published: 00:00 January 6, 2011
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Banks should keep vigilance on all customer transactions and look after clients who have been victims of phishing attacks. Banks must remember that they can also become victims of such scams.
Anonymous, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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I certainly blame the bank. No one is a fool to divulge passwords on the net. This clearly indicates that dealing with Mashreq is not safe. The bank doesn’t follow maximum online safety measures. This is not the first case. Many people have been coned and still the bank has not taken appropriate actions and is instead giving excuses that customers have been sharing their usernames and passwords on the net. This is absolutely absurd!
Mikhail , Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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Don’t you think Etisalat must investigate this issue too? Etisalat must inform the CID so that the crooks may be caught, perhaps through a sting operation. These swindlers are in reality using the money not to buy things, but rather to call people.
Mushtaq Ahmad, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
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Why do we always hear such stories about Mashreq Bank? There is no such news on other banks. Is there a security flaw in the bank’s system, which is being exploited by these money swindlers. Let the Central Bank initiate an inquiry into this.
Anonymous, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Dubai: An American academic got a rude shock when he woke up from sleep to see four SMS's stating that recharge transactions worth Dh2,000 had been done from his MashreqOnline account.
Peter Troiano, a Californian who teaches at a college in Fujairah, was horrified to see the messages on December 17, showing recharge transactions worth Dh500 each went to four different mobile phone numbers in the UAE. "I saw four messages from Mashreqbank stating that I paid Dh500 to etisalat in four separate transactions. The first message was at 23:36:06; the second message at 23:36:42 (on December 16); the third at 01:24; the fourth message at 01:59 (on December 17). My phone was shut off during these hours."
Troiano said he lodged a complaint with the bank as soon as he switched on his phone at about 1:30pm on December 17.
But it was too little, too late.
On January 5, Troiano received a notice from the bank dated December 21, 2010 stating that Troiano's valid user name and password were used. "These transactions were carried out using the customer's valid ID and password and therefore they are considered as authorised by the system," the bank said in a statement.
Mashreqbank said their online banking is safe. "We constantly advise customers never to share personal details or respond to e-mails, including those purporting to be from financial institutions. Furthermore, we advise that access to MashreqOnline banking should only be made through www.mashreqbank.com."
At least five cases of similar "phishing" raids - scams in which victims are waylaid to a false website where they are asked for their user name and password - had been reported in the UAE over the past few months.
Last week, XPRESS reported how Dh10,000 was deducted from the account of an Indian businessman in 20 etisalat re-charge transactions on December 6 and 7. Another victim reported losing more than Dh100,000 in one hit.
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