To facilitate effective and professional banking communication with victims of online financial abuse, the Hungarian Banking Association has issued a recommendation to its members
Budapest, 29.05.2024.
Anyone can become a victim of online fraud, regardless of age, gender, education, financial situation, upbringing, ideology or social status.
Experience has shown that, although some people are at higher risk of becoming victims of online fraud, it is by no means possible to clearly define and/or delineate psychological characteristics that can be identified as a characteristic of the target victim group.
The Hungarian Banking Association has prepared a recommendation in the framework of the CyberShield Programme, with the involvement of the Victim Support Centre of the Ministry of Justice, the Hungarian National Bank and the National Police Headquarters as professional cooperating partners.
The aim of the recommendation is to help bank customer services to communicate professionally and effectively with victims of financial abuse in the online space. It summarises the process for reporting online financial abuse by bank customers and the recommended principles for customer service communication to bank staff.
The technical material produced serves to harmonise two different aspects: on the one hand, to ensure that the bank's customer service is empathetic and compassionate in its communication with victims of online financial abuse. On the other hand, to accurately record the incidents reported by the victims, which the bank needs to investigate and then take the necessary measures to prevent further damage.
The full content of the recommendation is not made public because the technical details would help fraudsters to map out their customer handling processes, so that they could even more convincingly present themselves as "banking experts".
In case of abuse, it is essential that the customer should report the incident to the bank immediately! This is the REPORT. The most common form of reporting is to call the call centre/customer service, less often customers visit the branch in person. After contacting the bank, it is important that the REPORT is also made to the Police.
The technical material has been produced at the initiative of the Ministry of Justice (MoJ) in cooperation with the CyberShield Programme, to help banks communicate professionally and effectively with victims of online fraud.
IM's victim support service is linked to the CyberShield programme in several ways. In addition to consumer protection and victim assistance, the work of the recently formed legal sub-group also relies on the work of the Ministry. The experience gained since the IM joined the project confirms both the need and the usefulness of its participation in the project," said Dr Gabriella Diamantopoulos, Head of the Department of Justice Professional Management at the Ministry of Justice (MoJ). She said that the main focus is on communication with victims of online financial abuse, and that the programme is also trying to help with statistical data and, of course, legislative changes to reduce fraud.
In her presentation, Dr Julianna Dávidné Dr. Hidvégi, clinical psychologist, spoke about how bank counsellors can prevent customers who have become victims of online fraud from becoming secondary victims.
She stressed that it is important to prevent bank counsellors from being unprepared for the emotional reactions of victims of online fraud and to avoid, as far as possible, the client being victimised. Once an online fraud has occurred, it cannot be undone. However, the ability to become an active part of society again depends on the personal choice of the victim.
The press conference was hosted by OTP Bank. Six months ago, the bank decided to set up a special call centre for fraud victims at the Bank Security Directorate. As part of the restructuring, the bank's Call Centre has been replaced by a dedicated team to deal with victims. "The experience of the last six months shows that we have made the right decision to ensure that customers who have been victims of fraud can quickly reach us on the dedicated line. Today, we are receiving more and more calls where our customers ask for advice on how to prevent fraud, but recently we also had a case where fraudsters called our customer who became suspicious and called our Anti-Fraud Call Center, so with the guidance of our colleague they were able to prevent a remote access program from being downloaded to the customer's device," said Gábor Bucsek, Head of OTP Bank's Bank Security Directorate. OTP Bank has recently given its customers a new tool to fight fraudsters, introducing a transfer limit on 8 May, which most mobile bank users have already set much lower than the original HUF 1 million limit in the weeks since its launch.
The daily transfer limit is being introduced and successfully used by an increasing number of institutions in the banking sector, in line with the relevant MNB recommendation. As a bank customer, it is worthwhile to check it out and adapt your daily limit to your own needs based on your financial habits.
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The police have also sent a message of war to the perpetrators and have set a new basis for investigating this type of case.
The police's commitment to fighting cybercrime is also reflected in the numbers, with a 23% reduction in online fraud in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the first quarter of 2023.
Since 1 January 2023, investigators have arrested and questioned 688 people as suspects and identified more than 350 people as suspects.
In terms of their role, 48 persons are in managerial positions, 456 are stewards and 93 are organisers at different levels of the criminal organisation hierarchy. Since the beginning of last year, 105 arrests and 9 criminal supervision orders have been issued by the courts. Currently 56 persons are under arrest.
The perpetrators have caused more than HUF 30 billion in damages to nearly 17,000 people.
The units are paying special attention to the detection of fraudulent call centres, one possible way of which is to identify the IT system that enables the calls. The case was investigated by police at five locations and three people were handcuffed.
Proceedings against them for fraudulent use of an information system to cause significant damage to business are still ongoing.
Although criminals with the latest IT skills, banking, sociology and psychology are unscrupulous in their attempts to take money and personal details from unsuspecting people, the police are doing their utmost to prevent this from happening again.
www.kiberpajzs.hu
- End of the press release -
As background:
CyberShield
In order to prevent and curb financial abuse in the digital space, the Hungarian National Bank, the Hungarian Banking Association, the National Media and Infocommunications Authority, the National Cyber Defence Institute of the National Security Service and the National Police Headquarters signed an agreement called "CyberShield" in November 2022. The cooperation was later joined by the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Economic Development, the Hungarian State Treasury, the Regulated Activities Supervisory Authority and the National Defence Service.
The aim of the CyberShield programme is for customers, together with public authorities and market players, to create a "bulletproof" defence against digital criminals. Under the KiberShield project, a wide range of coordinated communication campaigns on cybersecurity risks and ways to protect against them are being conducted by institutions and market players, and the Media Union Foundation as a communication partner (kiberpajzs.hu, akulcstevagy.hu).
But CyberShield is more than just communication. Throughout the year, intensive cooperation will take place to analyse and further develop cybersecurity processes in the public authorities and the market. In addition, there is an ongoing exchange of professional knowledge and best practices at national and international level to achieve stronger and more effective financial cyber defences.
Translation: DeepL