Banks well ahead of fraudster

COMMERCIAL banks are working around the clock, enhancing security while others are changing systems in an effort to fight fraud.

The financial institutions have stepped up efforts in order to protect customers.

Fraud is revolving and becoming sophisticated each day and therefore mitigating it needs concerted effort, says Bankers Association of Zambia (BAZ) Fraud Prevention and Security Committee Member, Saviour Musonda.

Mr Musonda said institutions were alive to the risks associated with fraud and were working around the clock, enhancing security controls, while others even changing systems.

“With the sophisticated network behind The Internet of Things, many have suffered the reality of what it means to be scammed or simply defrauded.

“While some have awakened to a shudder in their daily lives, the majority have simply described it as a tragedy,” he said in his write-up on fraud in Zambia.

Fraudsters, Mr Musonda warned, strategically positioned themselves by Automated Teller Machines (ATMs), agency banking booths, by branches and had out smarted a lot of people.

He said account takeover was one of the many ways fraudsters were taking advantage of their victims.

Mr Musonda explained that this was when a fraudster gained access to an account that doid not belong to them, changed information such as log in credentials and made unauthorised transactions in that account.

“This happens in so many ways. Here is a deep dive in one of the ways; Things start like a normal loss of Mobile Network service on your phone. Not knowing it’s more than that. A fraudster has just taken over your Mobile number and has contacted your bank to reset Mobile Banking Pin to your accounts.

“This is not a day-off activity. It takes a fraudster a bit of a while to gather information about an individual and one of the sources for this information are the personal details we supply on the internet/social media platforms,” he said.

With this, Mr Musonda said, and any additional information obtained from other different sources, a fraudster was well equipped and able to represent the victim anywhere with their head up.