Mashreq joins list of fraud-hit banks

Dubai: Two more banks on Tuesday reported cases of cash withdrawals by fraudsters as investigations progress into the payment card fraud in the UAE.

Mashreq is the latest bank to be affected while Standard Charted Bank has sent out a warning to all its customers, urging them to change their PIN numbers.

Subhash Pillai, a Mashreq customer, received a call from the bank asking if he had made any transactions in the US.

When he said he had not, he was told that approximately Dh4,000 was withdrawn from his account using his debit card on three occasions.

Mashreq did not comment on the case.

Standard Chartered said in a statement that it is taking all possible measures to minimise fraud.

The bank has also blocked all international transactions including ATM withdrawals, and has reduced the limit of daily local withdrawals to Dh3,000.

Standard Chartered Bank has also established a cash delivery process in all major countries for overseas customers who are in need of urgent cash. It has promised to reimburse the customers within two days.

Currently, all of the bank's 130 ATM machines display warnings of fraudulent activity in addition to messages or requests to customers to change their PIN numbers,

While no ATM machines have been found to have been tampered with, some banks still maintain that the machines are the point from which PIN numbers and bank card information were stolen.

Jonathan Campbell James, regional head of fraud and security, HSBC Middle East, told Gulf News: "HSBC and several banks in the UAE have identified fraud that appears to result from the compromise of ATM information from another bank. This information has been used to produce counterfeit cards that have been used internationally."

He added that HSBC has restored withdrawal levels to normal limits.

"The attack is more sophisticated than those routinely experienced, and has come from multiple countries, but nonetheless the number of HSBC customers directly affected is very small," James said.

He added that only debit cards of the bank had been counterfeited and only a small number of the bank's customers remain vulnerable as they have not yet changed their PIN numbers.