Pivdenny Bank partners with the National Bank all-Ukrainian campaign to combat payment fraud #ШахрайГудбай

The campaign aims to teach Ukrainians the basic rules of security for cashless and online payments and increase financial awareness.

“Today we see that the level of fraud in the country is not declining. One of the most common cases of financial fraud with bank cards is still social engineering, when people transfer money to scammers or disclose their card details. On one hand, unfortunately, not everyone has a sufficient level of financial awareness or is familiar with fraud techniques, which are constantly changing. We always tell clients about privacy rules and fraud techniques, and encourage more careful monitoring of where and how to transfer funds, buy goods and order services. We can improve financial awareness only through joint efforts because it affects the well-being of our citizens,” said Olga Kolomiets, Head of Product, Remote and Alternative Channels Development at Pivdenny Bank.

During the quarantine period, Ukrainians increasingly began using cashless payments, settlements, and online purchases. There are also new schemes used by fraudsters who, under the guise of government agencies, promise financial assistance during the quarantine and thus trick clients into revealing their payment card data. The challenge for banks during the online transition was to protect people from such fraud.

“If we used to fight against ATM overlays, with which fraudsters stole card data, now we are fighting for public awareness, because in most cases people fall victim to fraud due to non-compliance with basic rules of payment security,” said Oleksiy Shaban, Director of Payment Systems and Innovation Development at the National Bank. According to him, last year in Ukraine there were almost 72,000 cases of illegal payment card activities. 58 % of them happened on the Internet. But fraud with ATM overlays is almost a thing of the past.

The #ShakhrayGudbay campaign started on 7 July and will take place in July-August, covering all regions of Ukraine. The campaign includes information on payment security rules and methods of combating fraud on television and radio, in newspapers and information portals, in messengers and via SMS, in the subway, at railway stations and even in electricity bills.

You can read more about the campaign here.