FNB warns companies and the elderly about the risk of electronic fraud

The volume of banking transactions on the Internet has seen a significant increase over this year, as a result of the isolation and confinement measures imposed by COVID-19. This is undoubtedly an indicator of change, but it requires extreme caution when sharing personal information and bank details.

Aware of this risk, FNB Mozambique warns companies of the existence of fraud using emails that target various institutions, especially those unprepared.

“One of the most common email frauds is Business Email Compromise (BEC), a type of fraud that targets companies, individuals and governments, using digital technology combined with social engineering techniques,” explains Sansão Monjane, Head of IT at FNB Mozambique.

Frauds of this kind can materialize in several ways, in one of them, malware is used, illicit malicious software, to access companies’ email accounts, and then correspondence is sent to debtor customers informing about the data change bank accounts of the creditor or supplier. The debtor is then asked to make transfers of the outstanding amounts in future payments to the new account.

The recipients of this type of scheme have been employees with specific positions within the organization, who are asked to make urgent payments.

To protect themselves from this type of fraud, companies must keep their protection software up-to-date, namely anti-virus and other prevention systems.

On protecting the elderly from cyber attacks on accounts

Therefore, fraudulent schemes deserve special attention when targeting individuals over the age of 65, as they tend to be less familiar with information and communication technologies. For this age group, the approach of criminals has been to provide help in the use of ATMs or Digital Channels for the appropriation and misuse of their data. To mitigate the risk of similar attacks, the FNB has released communications about PIN confidentiality and credentials, use of public wifi networks, secure access to Online Banking, among others.

At FNB “we alert our customers to anti-fraud protection and encourage them to use our reporting channels if suspicious transactions are suspected in their bank accounts. We also recommend that all necessary precautions are taken to ensure the security of your bank details ”.