Dubai Police has cautioned residents against bank fraud as 811 of such cases were reported in the last three years.
Police officials urged residents to be more vigilant at the launch of the #SecureYourAccount campaign organized by Dubai Police and Emirates NBD on Sunday.
Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, director-general of the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) of Dubai Police, said con artists in other countries are involved in several bank fraud cases, while others are contained within United Arab Emirates.
According to Gulf News, cyberattacks against banks have been increasing in recent years with an average cost of $18 million based on the 2019 Cost of Cyber Crime Study by Accenture and the Ponemon Institute.
“Over 811 cyber crime attacks related to banks have been reported over the past three years. We look forward for this number to drop after this campaign,” Al Jallaf was quoted in the report as saying.
Abdullah Qassem, group chief operating officer of Emirates NBD, also warned residents against spam emails asking for personal information.
“We reiterate that we, as Emirates NBD, will never call customers or send emails asking about their secret questions like account numbers, CVVs or user ID. So please don’t share these pieces of information with any source or with any individuals,” he said.
But human error remains “the biggest vulnerability when it comes to fighting cyber crime,” according to police and bank officials.
“We have to ensure that it is a genuine human error and there is no collusion [between any party any the fraudster]. So we study it case by case and if it’s a genuine human error, the bank will refund them. But we are not to give blindly to everyone because that will defuse the purpose of the campaign that we’re doing now,” Qassem added.
Emirates NBD advised residents to keep the virus protection of computers up to date, not to respond to spam emails, be wary of unsolicited documents, and keep passwords and other sensitive information.
