Customers using telephone banking will not be able to pass on their account, credit or debit card number on phone as many local banks have stopped accepting it for “highest customer safety”. Also, many banks have now introduced “telephone banking PIN” to ensure that only genuine customers avail of the facility. “Customers dialling contact centres of various banks are now being asked a few questions for account verification. Also, customers are not asked to furnish their account, credit card or debit card number or personal identification (PIN) details for their ATM facility,” an industry source said yesterday. “We can pull out relevant data with a customer’s Qatar ID number. That’s what we expect a customer to provide us,” the source said. Qatar already has a very high level of security for online, mobile and telephone banking to ensure cyber criminals do not hack into the system. Qatar Central bank (QCB) has facilitated a very efficient system to ensure card safety and foolproof electronic transactions across the nation-wide network of banks. Like in other advanced and emerging countries, electronic, mobile and telephone transactions have become quite popular in Qatar with people preferring “plastic over hard currency” for settling goods and service purchase. A banker yesterday said customers must avoid providing any account information either through e-mail, on phone or SMS. There are fraudsters seeking banking information through e-mail (phishing), on phone (voice phishing or vishing) or SMS (smishing). Already cash machines (ATMs) are trained to capture cards under suspicious circumstances, he said. “In a normal situation, cards captured by cash machines will be made invalid and destroyed. We strictly follow the QCB rules for issuing a replacement card,” he said. Customers must immediately notify the bank concerned if their cards are either lost or stolen. The police must also be alerted quickly. Under no circumstances should a user reveal his PIN to another person. Also, customers must not disclose their card number (embossed on the credit or debit card) to a third party. Local banks have also advised customers against sharing their password with others. http://www.gulf-times.com/qatar/178/details/376745/banking-safety-for-customers

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