It is critical to stay educated and be aware of risks as well as comply with prevention strategies and authentication policies
Over the past few years, the UAE’s financial market has embraced many new digital development strategies. However, given the coronavirus pandemic in 2020, this shift from analogue to digital has seen an exponential shift. Now, consumers have greater access to their financial institutions and ability to smoothly access their finances anywhere among a plethora of devices. Therefore, it is immensely critical to stay educated and aware of fraud risks, comply with prevention strategies, authentication policies and remain vigilant about our own role in not becoming a victim of fraud.
In the case of social engineering scams, fraudsters target unsuspecting customers, through SMS and emails, soliciting personal information related to their bank accounts, including SMS OTPs. Once provided by the customer, fraudsters are able to potentially take over accounts and steal money by transferring it out.
As a means of prevention, Citi regularly runs client education drives and spreads awareness along with tips and tools. Its latest offering is the Citi Mobile Token, which allows the customer to generate an authentication code without depending on SMS OTPs. Another means by which Citi is improving risk prevention is in using biometric authentication for card deliveries.
Citi continues to invest heavily in the latest technology within the field of fraud prevention and detection. In fact, Global Finance magazine awarded Citibank UAE and Bahrain under the award category of Best Consumer Information Security and Fraud Management for 2019. Citi always places the utmost importance on protecting the safety of its clients’ and their data.
