Central Bank struggles to pinpoint fraudsters

Dubai: The UAE Central Bank is struggling to pinpoint the source of the bank card fraud in which many people recently lost their entire savings to fraudsters, who stole money from UAE bank accounts using fake debit cards.

"It is not clear at this stage how this may have been done," the banking regulator said after it held a meeting with top industry executives in Dubai on Thursday.

The UAE Central Bank and major card service operators in the country are trying to find out how fake cards were created using information stolen from valid automated teller machine (ATM) cards.

Several banks had suspended overseas transactions for their customers after money was stolen from UAE accounts by fraudsters in several countries.

Senior bank managers have assured Central Bank officials that "customers should be confident that they will be reimbursed for all valid claims against fraudulent transactions," according to a statement after the meeting.

Customers at all banks are being told to change their four-digit personal identification numbers (PINs) within the next 15 days so that information gathered by fraudsters will become outdated. Additionally, banks could also replace ATM cards.

Necessary steps

"The next steps will be to identify the source of the fraud," the Central Bank said. The regulator will coordinate joint efforts involving experts from various parties affected in the scam. One of the measures favoured by the Central Bank to minimise the possibility of such frauds in the future is the introduction of the chip and PIN technology.