Saudi banks have renewed their warnings about the risk of increased cyber fraud as Saudis use credit cards more and the number of fake and unreliable websites increases.
Talaat Hafez, Secretary General of the Saudi Banks Information and Awareness Committee, revealed that customers are eager to buy products through websites without knowing that they are not licensed or trusted, which makes the customer a victim of unknown parties.
Talaat Hafez, Secretary General of the Saudi Banks Information and Awareness Committee.
Talaat Hafez said: "It is necessary to legalize online shopping fraud, which many visitors to these unsafe and unreliable sites fall victim to, as Saudi economic experts recently confirmed that more than 20 percent of Saudis fall into fraud cases through these applications and websites.
Talaat Hafez said: "It is necessary to legalize fraud operations through online shopping, which many of the visitors of these unsafe and unreliable sites fall victim to.
Hafez emphasized that Saudi banks' concerns do not include the sites of famous and trusted brands that enjoy high-level information protection.
Hafez emphasized that Saudi banks' concerns do not include the sites of famous and trusted brands that enjoy high-level information protection.
On the other hand, Hafez emphasized that the Kingdom ranks first in terms of the use of social networking sites in the Arab world, and these sites have contributed to electronic marketing and motivate the consumer to buy through authenticated or unauthenticated accounts. He added that the total annual losses resulting from fraud operations are estimated at about 5% of the volume of global trade, equivalent to 3.5 trillion dollars, explaining that the Kingdom is the lowest globally in the volume of financial fraud, given the awareness of customers and the approach of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA). Fraud cases (realized and unrealized) locally have recorded acceptable levels in relation to the volume and momentum of banking operations and transactions, which amounted during 2015 (4373) cases, with a quarterly average of (1093) cases.
