Oral East Africa>Bankers reveal common type of cons during fraud awareness week At the hut of the story

Written by Oral East Africa

If you get a call or a message asking you for your PIN, OTP, card details, username, or password, the caller may even be putting you under pressure to act fast; that could be a conman and banks want you to be aware, to detect and report such attempt to authorities.

Kenyan lenders have been sending awareness messages to their customers to mark the International Fraud Awareness Week, which gives a picture of common types of fraud in the country.

Most cases of fraud are seemingly social engineering, stealing credentials and identities for Push Payment fraud, due to rising digital adoption.

Kenyan lenders tell their clients they are likely to get suspicious calls claiming to be from the bank asking for card details for purposes of upgrading your card or asking for other private details.

“Dear Customer, your security is our priority! This International Fraud Awareness Week, we remind you that at Absa we will NEVER call, SMS, or email asking for your PIN, OTP, card details, username, or password. Safeguard your financial well-being by keeping these details private,” Absa Bank said to their customers.

Tough economy driving crime

Kenyans are opting to cut corners to survive the surge in living costs spiking cases of fraud and theft.

Crime rates are bound to rise as more people find it hard to make ends meet. Latest Kenya National Bureau of Statistics data shows growing strain as crime, especially, theft is on the increase.

Economic Survey 2024 shows the number of offences reported for stealing increased by 58 per cent over the last two years alone as authorities reported 18,534 cases last year.

All forms of theft recorded by authorities as robbery, theft of stock, theft by servants, vehicle theft, economic crimes and corruption increased signaling the rise of petty crime.

Banks are targets from cases of internal fraud to con artists targeting their customers with schemes to siphon off money in their accounts.

Kenya’s highly digitized economy linked with mobile money through telcos and banks has made the country a target for cybercrime and online fraudsters with lenders losing hundreds of millions annually.

Most local cyber-attacks are however are phishing attempts where the criminals collect personal data and use it to siphon cash.

However globally there has been a growth of DDoS attacks where the hackers jam systems crippling operations until a ransom is paid.