20,502 COVID-19 protocol violations recorded in a week across KSA

20,502 COVID-19 protocol violations recorded in a week across KSA

JEDDAH: Fraudsters have developed a new scam, contacting residents in Saudi Arabia and pretending to be bank staffers requesting customer details.

A number of Arab News staff have received such calls in recent weeks. One caller spoke Urdu while two other callers posing as senior officials from the headquarters of the bank spoke in English and Arabic with a local accent.

They used phone numbers that appeared to be local numbers but upon calling back, the lines failed to connect.

The racketeers collect phone numbers of customers and ring them up, saying that their bank account or ATM card requires immediate updating. The scammers use the information provided to gain access to their bank accounts.

Speaking to Arab News, Talat Zaki Hafiz, secretary-general of the Media and Banking Awareness Committee of Saudi banks, said: "Saudi banks represented by the Media and Banking Awareness Committee have repeatedly warned bank customers not to react to stray phone calls of any kind coming from unknown sources that ask to update their banking record or personal information.“ He further confirmed that banks do not request such information through phone calls or SMS messages.

Mohammed Khurram Khan, a professor of cybersecurity at the King Saud University in Riyadh, told Arab