UAE Banks Confirm ATM Fraud, Call for Vigilance

“Due to security reasons, we would like to request you to change your ATM PIN with immediate effect,” said an online message from the Emirates Bank Group (EBG) on Thursday. “Please visit the nearest Emirates Bank or NBD (National Bank of Dubai) ATM or call the call centre on 04-316-0316.”

Clients of the group’s flagship company Emirates Bank International, which had merged with NBD to become Emirates NBD, the UAE’s biggest bank by assets, have received the same SMS.

National Bank of Abu Dhabi, the second-biggest bank by assets in the country, said it would make a refund to any customer affected by a recent ATM fraud. The bank noted that criminals using counterfeit ATM cards had withdrawn cash from various accounts in the last three days.

Saif Al Shehhi, Senior General Manager of NBAD’s domestic banking division, said the bank, which has a sophisticated fraud-monitoring system, was able to detect the attacks quickly and took “urgent action to limit the problem.”

He added that the bank also sent out alerts through mobile phones.

“As part of this process we had to block certain transactions from overseas locations which may have caused some temporary inconvenience to customers travelling,” he explained in a statement.

“This was unavoidable and we apologise to any customers inconvenienced in this way. Alternatives were also set up to allow them to access cash without penalty.”

Jonathan Campbell-James, head of Security and Fraud Risk at HSBC Middle East, said on Wednesday that his office has been urging clients to change their PINs, describing it as a “good routine practice” needed to protect their accounts.

Dubai Bank had also moved quickly against the fraudulent ATM transactions from overseas by temporarily blocking international usage of ATM cards. “This swift action comes as part of our ethical obligation towards our customers, and our identity as a bank that is committed to Islamic Shariah in everything we do,” said Mohamed Amiri, head of retail banking.

Citibank, the consumer and corporate banking arm of financial services giant Citigroup, also requested its clients in the UAE to change their PINs “with immediate effect.” The bank also told clients to visit www.citibank.ae for the details on how to do it.

Residents voice concern over situation

Dhanusha Gokulan

dubai — Residents in the UAE responded to the security alerts of banks to change their ATM card PINs to protect their accounts from fraudsters.

A large number of residents changed their PINs soon after they received the SMS security alerts, but voiced their concern over the situation.

A cross-section of people Khaleej Times felt that the onus of account security was the reaponsibility of the banks they should adopt better technology to monitor frauds of this nature.

Jai Narwani, who is into the construction business and has multiple accounts in banks in the UAE, told Khaleej Times, “Changing the PIN code is only a temporary solution to the problem, unless you change your PIN codes very often. Since I have mulptiple accounts keeping in mind the PIN codes of all my accounts is a hassle. People tend to use the ATM because it s cost-effective and time-saving. I get mini statements from my bank every week because it helps me monitor and control the nature of transactions in my account. I use cheques as often as I can because the chances of fraud in a cheque transaction is almost nil. It is a time-consuming job, but even if it takes me some time I would rather be safe than sorry.”

Media professional Hassan Yazdi disagrees with the usage of cheques, “Cheques are a thing of the past and people are looking for easier and more flexible ways of making payments. I suppose banks should devise SMS and telephonic methods of conducting transactions. They should make use of the telecommunications industry, because cheques are traditional and time-consuming and very few people would have the time or initiative to use cheques. I received a few notifications from my bank, asking me to change my PIN code, but I still haven’t gotten around to doing it.”

Erum N. Khan, a student said, “Since technology will still be the same, an identity thief will continue to work his way. Its not a biomatrix system that they follow here. In fact frequent change in pin codes might be another way of fuelling the scam process. The more one changes his PIN codes, the more he tends to forget which could, in turn, lead to bigger frauds.”

Svetlana Kasyanenko, who travels extensively and use ATM machines quite frequently, said, “I have access to money 24 hours a day with the help of an ATM machine, but if I were to use cheques for cash transactions, I would have to go to a bank to encash it and banks are not open 24 hours. It is a very good initiative taken up by banks to notify their customers to change their PIN codes and it’s not very difficult to memorise a 4-digit number.”

Ahmed Jehangir is highly appreciative of the initiative taken by banks. “I do not carry hard cash each time I travel. I use debit and credit cards and a little cash for travelling purposes.The onus of account security lies mainly in the hands of the bank more than the customer. The banks should also take more inititive to use better technology like use of mobile phones and SMS to make easy bank transactions.”

jose@khaleejtimes.com