By Fay Simmons

Tribune Business Reporter

jsimmons@tribunemedia.net

The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) yesterday warned of an increase in Bahamians having funds stolen from their bank accounts after falling victim to phone and online scammers.

The unit, which has responsibility for receiving and analysing suspicious transactions reports (STRs) submitted by financial institutions, then forwarding those that merit further investigation to the relevant authorities, said Bahamians were being tricked into handing over their account numbers, passwords and details by persons pretending to be bank representatives on the phone or via e-mail.

“The Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) of The Bahamas hereby advises financial institutions and the public at large of incidences of fraudulent activities that are adversely affecting account holders of various commercial banks in the jurisdiction. The FIU has noticed an increase in suspicious transaction reports (STRs) where commercial banks have reported instances of account holders reporting unauthorised online transfers to persons unrelated or unknown to them,” the FIU said.

“Based on information received, victims reported the unauthorised transfers but would also note being contacted previously by a purported representative from the bank. The victims would then admit providing their account information to the purported representative. These individuals are victims of telephone banking fraud.

“The purported representative would then advise that there is an issue with your account information or request verification of a recent transfer. They induce the account holder to provide them with their personal banking information. The purported representative then uses this information to either use the client’s online banking or block the account holder from their account to use their online banking,” the FIU added.

“In other cases, victims have been noted to provide information as a result of an e-mail purporting to come from their banking institution requesting that the account holder confirm their banking information to avoid being blocked from their account. The e-mail will contain a link the account holder would click on to provide the information. This type of fraud is known as a phishing scam where the victim is induced to reveal sensitive information.”

The advisory also warned that persons may become involved in receiving fraudulent funds through bogus online employment recruiters that convince them the monies have been transferred for legitimate purposes. These individuals then send a portion of the amount to the fraudsters and unknowingly participate in the schemes. Others catch on to the illicit schemes and willingly participate.

The FIU said: “The recipient can be either a complicit or a non-complicit participant in the fraudulent scam. Based on information received from the recipient, they would have been contacted by an unknown individual through a social media platform where they are recruited by the individual for a job which requires them to determine the product or service of a business.

“The recipient is then advised that their account would be credited, and they were to keep a portion of these funds as payment for the completed job and the remainder should be transferred to them.

“These recipients genuinely believe that they were hired, and the funds were legitimately transferred. In other cases, the recipients have some knowledge of the fraudulent activity and are aware that the transfers to their accounts are unauthorised and some attempt to defraud the fraudsters by collecting the funds but not wiring out the funds to the fraudsters as instructed. These people become complicit in the fraudulent scam.”

Wayne Munroe, minister of national security, acknowledged the rise in fraudulent transactions while speaking at the Computer Incident Response Team stakeholder conference this week. He added that as technology becomes more accessible, participants are more vulnerable to persons with malicious intent. This threat extends to financial institutions, the general public and government agencies.

He said: “The Davis administration’s Blueprint for Change noted that we’re committed to advancing The Bahamas as a digital society. We fully understand that we are in an era of technology, regardless of some of us still relying on paper. Our citizens, civil agencies, private sector, government agencies and safety and security defences are all utilising more and more digital platforms.

“The ultimate goal is to accelerate digitisation, thereby increasing productivity. Simultaneously, as the cyber landscape becomes more accessible, it is also becoming increasingly connected and increasingly more complex. Hence the number of cyber threats, and attacks on both personal and commercial levels are on the increase. With the continuous advancement and evolution of technologies, vulnerabilities also are on the rise both for individuals and state actors.”

Mr Munroe maintained that cyber security is an important part of the digital push, and that a comprehensive approach to cyber protection through robust digital infrastructure is vital to protect The Bahamas from cyber crimes.

He said: “Critical to accelerating the nation’s economic growth and development by digitisation is cyber security. Cyber security and cyber reliance are essential to advancing a digital society that secures and protects every citizen of The Bahamas.

“From a national perspective, it is crucial to ensure a comprehensive approach to cyber security challenges, irrespective of whether these take the form of international cyber attacks, or are unintentional through natural disaster, technological errors or accidents.

“We can only improve protection against cyber incidents through the interaction between preventative measures, a robust digital infrastructure, the ability to deal with cyber attacks, the fight against cyber crime and sufficient cyber security competence.”