The new wave of frauds on individuals to steal money from their current accounts by impersonating phone numbers and corporate websites has revolted the banks, who want the telecommunications operators to stop the problem and for the central government to get involved in the solution.
The institutions’ uneasiness centers on practices such as voice phishing, in which customers receive calls from criminals using the bank’s phone number, leading them to unsuspectingly give out their personal keys. “It is a very serious issue and the banks are not to blame. They are hacking a telephone line and the operators need to be held accountable”, say one of the country’s largest banks.
The entities have detected an increase in scams and warn that the problem is increasing. Last year, some technical meetings were already held between banks, operators and the Central Government which were suspended while waiting for the new Minister for Digital Transformation, José Luis Escrivá, to form his team. Meetings resumed in mid-January.
From the telecommunications operators, the silence is total. Although the sector recognizes that “any measure taken by the Administration that covers this task and maximizes the effectiveness of coordinated actions between the various sectors is always welcome”.
From the Spanish Government, they limit themselves to indicating that there are “still very preliminary conversations with technicians from the Secretariat of State for Telecommunications”, but do not specify which topics.
However, among the banks, moods are more tense and they want to elevate the meetings to a forum between banking employers, AEB and CECA, the telecommunications companies and the central government. “This is increasing and the telcos must put in technology to solve it”, say another of the big Spanish banks. “Telecommunications companies are not putting up barriers to prevent fraud”, added one of the two banking employers.
Incibe (National Cyber ??Security Institute) indicates that these days there has been a wave of SMS phishing attacks, in which a text message is used to direct the user to a fake website. It has been suffered by customers of ING, Abanca, Sabadell, Bankinter, Laboral Kutxa, BBVA, Santander, Caja Sur, CaixaBank and Deutsche Bank, who have received texts warning of suspicious transfers of large amounts, account blocking , processing unauthorized loans or charges. “They try to create a sense of alertness so that the victim feels the need to respond immediately”, they indicate.
“To fight against fraud, we understand that a holistic approach is needed, covering all areas,” says Natalia Ortega, head of BBVA’s new global financial crime prevention unit. On the part of the bank, it is necessary to guarantee “that all the tools used in banking operations, from the app to BBVA’s technological platform itself, follow the best security standards in the industry”. However, it is a “necessary but not sufficient condition”, and customers also need to get involved, he explains.
CaixaBank has warned of new frauds in which fake SMS and fraudulent calls are combined. “Cybercriminals know that the more complex the attack, the more realistic it will seem to the victim,” warns the bank on its blog. Santander recommends never giving out personal keys, except in the bank’s app, and has held 1,024 financial education sessions with an emphasis on the risk of fraud. In its latest complaints report, the Bank of Spain already warned that fraud attempts through online means or with cards had doubled in just one year.
