Online fraud poses serious challenges to credit institutions

Online fraud is posing serious challenges to credit institutions worldwide, and Việt Nam is no exception.

In Việt Nam, online fraud has reached its peak in the past two years due to the pandemic.

Fraudsters have taken advantage of people’s immobility during social distancing to trick them into fraudulent programmes, including preferential loans and credit card activation, to steal their personal data and use the data to make illegal transactions on e-commerce platforms.

Another trick is fraudsters posing as service providers, persuading clients to upgrade their 4G sim cards and then take control of the sims via USSD codes.

The fraudsters later use the sims to withdraw money from their victims' accounts or do online shopping without their knowledge.

People have also been taken in by fraudulent online lending programmes, which require borrowers to disclose personal data, including ID and bank card numbers. With the data in hand, fraudsters open e-wallet accounts linked to their victims’ bank cards and use the accounts to steal their money.

FE CREDIT, a leading credit card company, recommends clients not disclose their OTP codes to anyone to stay safe from online fraud.

If clients find some suspicious transactions, they are recommended to deactivate their cards and contact their card issuers to get technical support.

“Most online fraud is aimed at stealing OTP codes or taking control of victims’ sims, whereby fraudsters make illegal transactions, withdraw money or do online shopping without their victims’ knowledge,” warned the company.

The company also reveals that FE CREDIT cardholders can immediately deactivate their cards via the application FE Online, via Zalo, through automatic conversations on the website www.fecredit.com.vn or by SMS sent to 8083.

The company also claims that safeguarding client data and interests and protecting systematic security is its top priority.

According to experts, personal data should not be shared with other persons include OTP codes, credit card numbers, expiration dates and CVV numbers.

Clients are also recommended not to enter the data into suspicious links and not to save Fsimdata to websites used to make periodic payments.