I was so excited to reach home to finally take dinner and indulge in my Twilight addiction, amongst others, when I got an auto-generated SMS from my payee-bank. The SMS says,
Banks in UAE have reported incidences of ATM misuse. As a precaution we strongly urge you to immediately change your ATM PIN at the nearest XYZ Bank in UAE.
Imagining the long queue, I wanted to change mine through the net. Incidentally, I’ve done e-banking only once since I got here. I totally forgot my password. I had no choice but to join the sort-of-reunion/ United Nations Day in one of the branches. Expats & locals queued in all the ATMs of different banks. It took me more than an hour to reach the finish line, err, the machine. I felt almost collapsing, since my taking dinner was delayed by more than a couple of hours.
Personal information including passwords of a substantial number of customers spanning across a number of banks operating in the UAE was stolen. The same is being used to create fraudulent cards in the US, predominantly. The fraudsters are using such card and associate information to make online purchases and withdraw cash from ATMs in the US.
The most recent incident is reported by an expat cardholder from Dubai:
“My debit card was copied either at the Marina or at Al Wasl Spinney’s ATM and then used many times in Egypt for a total value of Dh15,000 (US$ 4,084) in various transactions, in shops such as pharmacies and sports stores.”
She can’t recall which bank’s ATM she used since she uses several banks’ machines.
I had my share of conducting ATM fraud audit years back. This happened in the Philippines, too. But not too publicized. No matter how strict the controls are, nothing is impossible with evil minds.
I almost backed out on immediately changing my passkeys when I heard my tummy growling. I may change it early in the morning tomorrow. Thinking that my accounts are not that fat enough to be the targets. But I can’t undermine any risks. I realized, too, that I have exposed myself to concentration risk. ( I’m beginning to talk jargon here.) I just wish to say that I should have strategically maintained my accounts. It’s expectedly bad timing that they also reduced by 50% the withdrawable cash per day. To panic is human, people want to zero out their balances as horribly as possible.
Reminds me of the oldies who don’t want to keep money in the financial institutions. But, to put such in a safety deposit box or wherever at home. Technology has two faces, like the other things in life. While in queue, I did wish that I brought a copy of New Moon. So, that I’ll look like a nerdy fiction gal there. Heehee. In general, banks here are tellerless. You can imagine the crowd at the ATMs today.
Since I didn’t want to make myself feel miserable and get impatient, I had to regale myself. I carefully observed each person. Comparing physicals, voices, smell, whatever. I finally found my worth when a man asked me how to execute the process of changing the PIN. Another inquirers came. Finally, I’m not bored. It’s a general conclusion that majority don’t really change/ don’t know how to change their PINs upon card’s issuance. My irritation didn’t come out when I see those taking ages to change theirs. If I’m in their shoes, I might be lost, too.
I hope this electronic robbery will be stopped soon. I can’t help but think of the bloodiest robbery in the Philippines that happened this year. This sophisticated electronic robbery is lesser evil.
witsandnuts 
0 thoughts on “Being electronically robbed”
rhea
yikes! scary…I, myself am a regular ATM/Debit Card user. I don’t carry cash anymore so just the thought of somebody using my account scares me. Anyway, its my habit to check on my account online everyday so that I would see if there were any alien transactions that happened. So far, so good.
Makes me want to go back to the old fashioned way of keeping money – under the bed! Hehe.
Just shows how evil the world is becoming. Getting worse each day.
I laughed at your “comparing physicals, voices, SMELL…” comment. I could just imaging you doing that. LOL.
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Sinta
Hope everything is okay. I’m so possessive when it comes to my own data, I growl down the phone at anyone asking me to partake on a survey. Technology has brought a lot of good and I’m very optimistic about it. We will become more secure as time comes.
Sintas last blog post..Champagne for Physics
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kayni
that is scary. i wonder why they would require everyone to change their ATM pin. did the perpetrators stole everyone’s data from the bank? on one incident here, one of the huge shoe stores had their account hacked and everyone who used bank cards at this store were given a notice, but it was the store’s responsibility to keep track of the peoples’ accounts. i hope you still had dinner. i’d get grouchy if i was hungry and was caught in a long line too.
kaynis last blog post..Happy And Sad
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sheng
That’s too bad. I will inform my friends in Dubai about this. They must keep their ATM pins to themselves and be careful about this thing.
shengs last blog post..Dig this…
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BlogusVox
I got this from my email. It says, if you’re forced to withdraw your money thru ATM, enter your PIN in reverse. That is if your PIN is “1234”, punched in “4321”. You’ll get your money but it will inform the bank the withdrawal was done in duress. I don’t know if its true, I haven’t tried it yet.
The only hitch is if your PIN is “1111”, there is no way of knowing if you’re being robbed.
BlogusVoxs last blog post..Fasting Fever
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witsandnuts
I hope no one has the repetitive combination of passkeys. 😉 Glad that my payee-bank sends automatic SMS alerts each time there is a transaction/ change in balances.
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Kashif
Changing PIN on ATM kiosks is itself a security threat especially when there’s a queue standing right behind your shoulders.
In general I have found banks in UAE not up to the mark in customer services. Not every bank provide SMS updates whenever a transaction occurs, which is quite helpful to keep tap on unauthorized activities.
Kashifs last blog post..ATM Card Fraud on rise in UAE
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witsandnuts
Hi Kashif! In general, UAE banks have lax physical and non-physical controls. I can’t help but compare them to the stricter securities in other countries. This one would be a big awakening to the Central Bank to tighten its regulations. Thanks for visiting.
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Kashif
One step taken by some of the banks (I know about Mashreq) is to stop any international usage of their debit cards. While this may be a nuisance for people traveling abroad, it will certainly discourage malicious attempts.
However, I was just going through a report in Gulf News and according to it customer information may be hacked through some sniffer program installed between ATM and Bank Back Office. If this theory is correct, every ATM user is at risk.
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