Common incidents of fraud in the UAE
Insights into how to avoid falling victim to fraudulent activity
Gurcharan Chhabra, Head of Fraud Prevention & Intelligence and a veteran at Mashreq, has been at the forefront of Mashreq’s war against fraud. As per his experience, these are the types of fraud to that customers are subjected to nowadays:
1. Fraudsters who pretend to be Bank staff call customers under a (fake) high pressure scenario (e.g., “Your card is being used abroad right now for USD3,000. I urgently need some information to block it”). These are fraudsters trying to obtain sensitive financial information or 3D Secure passwords.
2. Fraudsters ask for sensitive information while pretending to be from your financial institution, law enforcement, police, Central Bank or immigration.
3. Fraudsters send emails/SMS to customers while disguised as courier companies, asking them to share card details online
4. Fraudsters advertising “50 per cent off on Pizza” or any other such promos, again with fake websites attempting to steal customer information
Customers can protect themselves from fraud by following these best practices:
1. Do not respond to unknown or unsolicited calls.
2. If you are told of a critical action on your Bank account or card, do not panic and share information. Call your Bank on their registered phone number and ask about your account/card.
3. Do not share any confidential information, Password, PIN or OTP with anyone over the phone or otherwise.
4. Double check the “amount value” of your transaction given in the OTP, before inputting it for a card transaction
5. Avoid clicking on links. Whenever possible, type in the URL yourself. If clicking a link is unavoidable, watch the top row of the browser carefully to make sure the URL is of the right website
6. Carefully monitor transaction SMSs and emails sent by the Bank and, in case of any issues, reach out to the Bank immediately to ask for card blocking (Mashreq customers can also instantly place a temporary block on the card through the Mashreq Mobile application).
7. If you suspect a fraud, file a dispute with the Bank as soon as possible. Mashreq customers can access our digital dispute form at mashreq.com/ccdisputeform. Mashreq works diligently with stakeholders, including payments schemes, to maximise the chances of successful dispute refunds.