How to counter phone scammers

Importantly! How to counter phone scammers

Phone payment fraud is one of the most common types of fraud that can lead to the loss of money and confidential data. Fraudsters can call on behalf of employees of banks, mobile operators, government institutions in order to defraud citizens. Phone scams can take many forms, from simple attempts to extort payment details to more sophisticated methods of obtaining confidential information.

MTB Bank never calls customers to obtain confidential card information and does not use chatbots to communicate with bank customers in order to find out their phone number or your personal data.

IMPORTANTLY!

Only scammers ask for confidential data. Therefore, under no circumstances should you provide the following details of your cards and accounts:

▫ validity period of the card

▫ three-digit security code on the back of the card (CVV2/CVC2 code)

▫ PIN code of the card

▫ passwords sent to you in SMS messages

▫ password to the MTV360 mobile application

▫ personal identification data: passport series and number, "secret word", recent card transactions

If the personal data of the card became known to third parties - IMMEDIATELY contact the MTB Bank Customer Support Center at 0800 500 255 and block the payment card!

We advise you to have a separate phone number for interaction with a financial institution, the so-called "financial number", register it and "bind" it to your passport data, carefully monitor where information about the financial number is posted.

How can fraudsters steal a phone number?

An employee of the mobile operator calls you and introduces himself and recommends replacing the SIM card, offering to switch to an improved tariff. To do this, they are asked to dictate the code from the SMS message from the mobile operator.

Remember, mobile operators never ask for codes from SMS messages.

Such a code allows the fraudster to register on your behalf in the online account on the website of the mobile operator.

The fraudster registers and remotely reissues the SIM card.

From that moment on, the SIM card in the smartphone of the owner of the number does not work, and the financial phone number is in the hands of a fraudster.

Having appropriated a phone number, a fraudster can do a lot of damage to its owner:

• steal money from bank accounts;
• issue online loans;
• asking for money from friends on social networks on behalf of the victim;
• get access to the phonebook and SMS, accounts in social networks, bank-ID, Google Account (ICloud), e-mail.

To prevent this:

• keep secret SMS codes from mobile operators, PUK code and serial number of the SIM card;
• register a SIM card in your passport or switch to a contract with a mobile operator;
• disable the remote SIM card replacement service from your mobile operator;
• get a separate phone number for interaction with a financial institution.

Do not link the financial phone number to social networks, messengers or use it for authorization in other systems.

Do not leave the financial number as a contact number in the profile data and do not use it for daily communication.

In order to deceive citizens and steal funds from their cards, fraudsters can use such technology as spoofing (forgery).

Spoofing is a technique where fraudsters masquerade as an official, trusted source (such as a bank) to gain access to sensitive data, which then allows them to steal funds.

Spoofing can be done through e-mails, text messages, phone calls, etc. That is, a fraudster calls or writes to a person, and the Ukrainian number of a bank, mobile operator, pension fund, tax office, police, etc. is displayed on the screen of the gadget.

Fraudsters can use spoofing to change phone numbers and imitate SMS from banks. For example, an SMS message from a fraudster can be "pulled" into the chain of correspondence with the bank, that is, when you tear off an SMS message from a fraudster, you see previous messages from your bank. In this way, fraudsters disguise their messages as bank messages.

Also, using spoofing technology, fraudsters imitate calls from banks.

A robotic voice, under various pretexts, informs about the need to provide bank confidential data to a fake bank employee. Having received this information, criminals appropriate the funds.

To avoid this kind of scam:

▪ call the bank yourself! If a bank employee calls you, say that you are now calling the official bank number indicated on the payment card;

▪ do not tell anyone:

✔ sms codes from banks;

✔ three numbers on the back of the card (CVV code);

✔ logins and passwords from internet banking;

✔ card pin code.

 

What information can a real bank employee ask for?

When you call the bank's contact center on your own, a bank employee conducts remote customer identification and you will be asked questions about a secret word, birthday, place of residence, passport, etc.

But real bank employees will never ask for the three-digit number on the back of the card, SMS codes, Internet banking passwords, or card PIN. Be vigilant so you don't give scammers a chance.

Importantly! To contact MTB Bank, you must use the official customer support phone number 0 800 500 255 and the chat center, which can only be accessed from the official website mtb.ua in the "Contacts" section or from the MTV360 mobile application.