SECURITY Bank Corp. (SBC) has urged the public to become more vigilant of online scams and cybercrimes adding that aside from phishing, other forms of fraud like “vishing” and “smishing” are on the rise.
“Many types of scams have emerged since the pandemic forced the public to stay at home and bank online. Currently, there are three common forms of fraud that thieves commonly use. These are ‘Phishing,’ ‘Vishing’ and ‘Smishing,’” the bank said.
Phishing works when fraudsters send emails to bank clients and trick them into entering their personal information into misleading websites.
Meanwhile, Vishing is a form of phishing that occurs over the phone when a fraudster pretends to be a bank representative and asks questions that lead clients to disclose their sensitive information.
Smishing, on the other hand, is a technique where fraudsters use text messages with instructions that lure clients into sending back their personal information.
In a statement last Thursday, the bank said they have noticed a rise in online scams along with the expansion of digital banking services.
“Since many individuals work from home, most of them use online or mobile banking,” SBC Executive Vice President and Segment Head for Enterprise Technology and Operations Colin Dinn said. “What happens now is fraudsters pretend to be bank representatives to steal personal information, or worse,
authorize transactions through OTP [One Time Pin] sharing, among the few.”
In 2020, SBC reported that their online money transfer transactions saw the biggest usage with the bank posting a 284-percent increase in the usage of its local remittance facility and a 51-percent increase in fund transfer transactions.
The bank said it asked consumers to always be skeptical when an unknown caller starts asking for your personal information especially those used in banking like full name, birthdate, Social Security System number, Taxpayer Identification Number or TIN, bank credentials, among others.
The bank also urged the public to ask questions that will give you a hint if the caller and the call itself are legitimate.
“Fraudsters are trained to sound very convincing. They might even have researched about you and your personal background (family, friends, interests, etc.). To be sure that you are dealing with authorized representatives from the bank, contact the bank through the number on the official website and not the number provided by the caller,” the bank said.
SBC also said it would be wise to refrain from posting your contact details and other personal information on social media.
“We have ramped up our cyber awareness campaign on all [our] social media platforms to consistently remind the public on how to avoid falling into the trap of fraudsters, hackers and the like,” Dinn said.
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