National fraud awareness campaign extended

The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE), UAE Banks Federation (UBF), Abu Dhabi Police, Dubai Police, and Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) announced extension of the successful fraud awareness campaign, which was launched in April last year as the UAE’s first national fraud awareness campaign. This joint initiative gained significant traction with citizens and residents across the UAE.

The initiative, which aims to educate customers to protect themselves from financial cybercrime and fraud, particularly in light of the increased use of digital banking services during Covid-19 pandemic, has been extended for a period of one year, till the end of 2021.

Under the theme #TogetherAgainstFraud, this National Fraud Awareness Campaign will, in its second year, continue to encourage people to fight fraud with facts, and to remain vigilant against fraud of different types. Through multimedia content; including articles, educational videos, and social media posts, the campaign will raise customer awareness on how to identify scams and avoid them.

In the past few years, the global banking landscape has transformed rapidly, with physical branch networks shrinking and volume of digital payments increasing. While Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated that transformation, fraudsters across the world are creatively finding new ways to steal from banks and customers. This has prompted CBUAE, UBF, Abu Dhabi Police, Dubai Police, and TDRA to extend this UAE’s National Fraud Awareness campaign, which has been running strongly across social media channels with support from UBF’s Fraud Prevention Committee and all UBF members.

This joint initiative focuses on different topics or awareness every month. Such topics include email fraud, social engineering, phone fraud, advance fee scam, business email compromise, digital banking safety, e-Commerce security, and, among others, social media privacy.

Khaled Mohamed Balama, Governor, Central Bank of the UAE, said: “The extension of the national awareness campaign against financial fraud reflects the concerned authorities’ commitment to continue raising public awareness about fraud activities and their methods to protect consumers and the financial system from the threats posed by financial crimes. The increasing reliance on digital payments during Covid-19 pandemic has led to the rise of financial fraud activities also posed challenges to the banking sector, which called for joint efforts of the competent authorities to limit financial and cyber-crimes."

Through together-against-fraud campaign, the Central Bank in cooperation with the participating authorities will continue to issue a series of educational guidelines and initiatives to help community members identify scam methods and raise their security awareness.

AbdulAziz Al Ghurair, Chairman of UAE Banks Federation, said: “The UAE is a regional leader in digital adoption and e-Commerce payments, and Covid-19 pandemic accelerated that trend. Safety regulations and physical restrictions acted as a catalyst for transactions to move from malls to mobiles. However, the ensuing uncertainty has provided a fertile environment for cybercrime. While technology has helped our UBF member banks and their customers with tools for business continuity, it remains a double-edged sword with cybercriminals and attackers using ever more sophisticated tools. In such scenarios, customer awareness and education play a critical role.”

— business@khaleejtimes.com