publish time

19/09/2019

author name Arab Times

publish time

19/09/2019

Hackers now using Viber

KUWAIT CITY, Sept 19: Never trust a person who calls you on WhatsApp or Viber applications or for that matter any means of communication and asks you about your personal account information, even if its your bank calling you, reports Al-Rai daily.

Local bankers, telecom companies and banking officials, have said over and over again that the hackers and gangs of thieves who are at work devising new methods to deceive and rob money from people’s accounts. They are said to have got rid of their traditional methods which has always come as a message. The new method is the hackers now call via Viber.

Despite successive assurances that local or foreign banks never ask their customers for bank account data some customers continue to fall prey to the hackers’ tactics, especially when they respond to such calls and provide the requested data.

According to the experiences of a number of Viber and WhatsApp applications users in Kuwait, these gangs try to circumvent the users by presenting themselves as officers from local banks or telecommunications companies, to further convince the client and even use the logo of the bank or photos of locally known executives.

These gangs have recently sent warning messages, telling the client that his/ her bank account has been canceled and then asked for details to update the personal data. These fraudsters not only do so, but contact the person, impersonating the local institution and repeatedly circumventing it.

By looking at the messages they send to users, it is noticeable that they often contain errors in writing in Arabic and the use of multiple logos from various institutions, but they always include a number to communicate via WhatsApp, in an effort to delude the user to easily communicate with the institution they impersonate.

Due to the frequent occurrence of such attempts by these gangs and the possibility of success, especially with the elderly or semi-educated people, there is a need to intensify awareness campaigns to warn customers.