This information was shared by Mr. Le Anh Dung, Deputy Director of the Payment Department (State Bank) at the workshop "Protecting bank accounts against the increasing risk of online fraud" on September 19.

Biometric technology is a way to identify and verify individuals through biological characteristics such as fingerprints, iris patterns, voice, facial images... This technology is considered to minimize the possibility of counterfeiting and has the highest security today.

Vietnam is a country with a high rate of online fraud with 87,000 recorded cases of fraud, according to the Global Anti-Fraud Alliance (GASA). In 2021 alone, victims lost $374 million, equivalent to $4,200 per fraud case.

Mr. Dung assessed that criminals are increasingly operating in an organized manner, establishing companies operating on a global scale, and even having fraudulent recruitment camps. A series of new scams have continuously appeared in recent years, from impersonating authorities and organizations (police, tax, insurance, banks), recruiting online sales collaborators, calling for stock investment... causing many people to unfortunately fall into traps. However, from the perspective of account owners' recognition, Mr. Dung classified them into two groups of scammers.

The first, and most common, type is unauthorized payment fraud (credential theft). This type of fraud occurs when a criminal obtains a customer’s login information or has previously obtained customer credentials.

This allows criminals to gain access to a customer’s account and make transactions without the account holder’s knowledge. In this case, the customer may be entitled to compensation from the financial institution, unless they themselves have intentionally committed fraud.

Mr. Nguyen Tran Nam, Director of Digital Banking at Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), said that fraudulent money transfer transactions often do not occur on the customer's own device. One of the latest tricks is to lure customers into installing applications that allow them to interfere with the operating system and monitor their behavior on their mobile phones. The scammers will wait until the victim's account has a lot of money, remotely control the phone to steal the money in the account. With these types of fraud, Mr. Nam said that biometric transaction authentication is a key factor in minimizing fraud.

In the near future, Mr. Le Anh Dung also said that the State Bank will amend Decision 630, allowing credit institutions to apply biometric authentication to transactions exceeding a certain transaction limit.

Mr. Dung said that it is necessary to set a minimum level for online transactions, requiring biometric authentication instead of simply authentication via regular OTP. Currently, 90% of online transfers are under 10 million VND. This can be a basis for reference, applying a minimum transfer level requiring biometric authentication, ensuring a balance between customer experience and fraud prevention.

The second type of payment fraud, according to the Deputy Director of the Payment Department, is the "authorized" transaction of the account holder. Accordingly, criminals set a trap, tricking the account holder into actively making the transaction.

Crimes prey on the psychological factors of victims such as greed, fear, compassion for social relationships. "Dealing with this type of fraud is not simple, requiring cross-sectoral initiatives to minimize risks and limit losses," said the Deputy Director of the Payment Department.

Therefore, the most important line of defense against fraud, especially psychological fraud, is from the user side.

However, the sad reality is that, according to Mr. Ngo Tan Vu Khanh - Country Director of Kaspersky security software company in Vietnam, while businesses and banks invest a lot in ensuring safety, users, who are the weakest link, are not equipped with any tools to prevent and detect fraud.

Not to mention, many people still have a subjective mentality towards the repeated scams. Lieutenant Colonel Cao Viet Hung, Deputy Head of Department A05 - Ministry of Public Security said that many scams are not new, they have been happening for a few years, but when they bloom again, people continue to fall into the trap.

To limit fraud, General Director of Asia Commercial Bank (ACB), Mr. Tu Tien Phat, outlined the "three no" principle for people. First, customers should not click on links sent via text messages or social networks, especially when the source has not been verified. Second, customers should not download applications that are not on the Google Play or App Store. Customers should also not listen to advice from strangers over the phone or on social networks. In addition, people should slow down before "strange" behaviors, carefully read information and warnings sent to the phone, before making transactions.

In addition, the ACB General Director also recommended many policy solutions to limit online fraud. According to him, the authorities should have strict sanctions to deal with the situation of buying and selling bank accounts - one of the factors causing the current financial fraud boom. In addition, the State Bank should also issue a mechanism for quick coordination between commercial banks in case of signs of fraud, in order to quickly block accounts and prevent unusual transactions, limiting customer losses.

Quynh Trang