By Talaat Hafiz
FINANCIAL fraud poses a big challenge to most economic sectors including banking all over the world. It targets not only individuals but also organizations such as banking and commercial institutions, causing big losses.
Financial fraud comes within the economic crimes, which are punishable by law. It is also an immoral practice as the fraudsters cheat their victims applying various methods and tricks to gain financial benefits and even intellectual property rights.
Phishing, which denotes illegal attempts to obtain sensitive information such as usernames and passwords, is one of the most common financial frauds in modern times. Fraudsters who apply phishing use emails from fake websites asking their victims to give their bank accounts.
Fraudsters try to obtain bank account numbers, passwords of credit cards and other vital information that would enable them to achieve specific purposes, most importantly withdrawal of money.
Another method followed by such fraudsters is impersonation as they would act like bank employees and ask their victims by telephone to disclose their bank account numbers and other personal banking information under the pretext of updating personal data.
Some unauthorized individuals and organizations offer the service of paying bank loans and project financing illegally. These fraudsters will disappear after collecting huge amounts of money from their victims. They can easily cheat people as there is no authority to monitor their illegal “service.”
There is another financial fraud, which is also prevalent in our society.
They will inform you through cell phone and email that you have obtained prizes in cash and kind. The fraudsters use this method to get vital information from their victims and get away with their money.
The best way to prevent financial fraud is to keep secret banking information safe without disclosing them to anyone, not just to strangers and unknown individuals. We should also make sure the security and dependability of electronic marketing websites and follow the instructions of banks to protect banking and personal information.
We should inform the bank immediately if cheated by fraudsters.
The media and banking awareness committee of Saudi commercial banks has been conducting annual awareness campaigns titled “Do not disclose it” to protect their clients from fraudsters. The campaign tells the public not to respond or interact with emails and telephone contacts from illegal and unknown sources, especially when they ask for banking information and secret codes.
Banks advise customers that they should use haphazard secret codes and change them regularly to avoid misusing them by fraudsters, especially after returning from foreign countries.
Banks also inform clients that they should not reveal their secret codes to anybody, even to bank employees or friends and relatives in order to protect its secrecy. People should also monitor their bank accounts regularly to make sure no unauthorized bank dealings have occurred.
If they observe any fraudulent transactions without their knowledge, they should immediately inform bank authorities to take action.
