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The Association of Saudi Bankers confirmed recently that the number of banking related frauds, including ATM and online fraud, is lower in the Kingdom than in the rest of the world. The association attributes this fact to the continued efforts of Saudi bankers to raise awareness among their customers.
“Alertness should be responsibility of the customers, but Saudi bankers are make every possible effort and take all the right measures to protect customers in any banking operation, something that is yielding positive results,” Talat Z. Hafiz, general secretary of the association, told Arab News.
“Customers need to be extra cautious while dealing with online banking systems, by equipping their computers with the latest and most effective anti-virus and malware protection software”, he added.
A total of 1.3 billion banking transactions were recorded in 2013, including ATM and online banking in the Kingdom, out of which, only 3,500 complaints of fraud per quarter were recorded by the ��������Ƶn Monetary Agency (SAMA), which, according to Hafiz, is a very low number.
“There were 5.5 billion attempts of fraud in the banking sector recorded last year worldwide, so compared to the rest of the world such fraud attempts in the Kingdom are extremely low by comparison,” the expert asserted, adding that Saudi banks are now in the top 10 category in world banking.
All debit and credit cards issued by banks in the Kingdom are PCIDSS equipped to prevent fraud. The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCIDSS) is a proprietary information security standard for organizations that handle branded credit cards. The standard was created to increase controls around cardholder data to reduce credit card fraud.
Saudi-issued bank cards with PCIDSS can’t be cloned, thus preventing skimming of card information by any third party.
Hafiz praised the awareness campaign started by Saudi banks in 2009, which, according to the expert, has proved a success since then, with banks sending 60 million SMS this year to alert customers of possible fraud. Bankers also use various mass media campaigns to inform customers about the right ways to do safe banking transactions, with six awareness programs in 2014.