Oman Wires It's all about Oman
Mohammed Hidayatullah, a creating technician with a private organisation in Muscat, fell prey to the fraudster who claimed to be from the bank exactly where he had his savings account. The fraudster transferred the funds from the victim’s account by initiating a debit card PIN modify request.
“The caller said that he is from the bank where I have my account and that they are changing my debit card PIN. I was asked to confirm the PIN change request through a series of messages. I confirmed the PIN change requested and the damage was done. I was aware of ROP’s instructions regarding such scam calls, but I fell prey to it as I was busy at my workplace at the time,” he mentioned.
Also study: ROP warns against fake calls, messages by impersonators seeking personal information
Hidayatullah had a total of RO4,100 in his account when the incident occurred. “I got a couple of SMSes for change of password and abided by the instructions. I realised my mistake after I received the message that money had been debited from my account. I called the call centre immediately and they blocked the money transfer as much as they could. But by that time RO1,800 had been debited already.”
Hidayatullah’s bank statement showed that RO1,200 had been debited by means of on the internet transfer and RO600 from an ATM machine. He has approached the ROP to aid the bank avoid any additional funds transfers.
“The bank has stopped all transactions and I can get the rest of the money only once I get a statement from the ROP saying that I was a victim of such a fraud and the bank has to return the remaining amount. Once ROP completes its investigations it will give the report to the bank,” mentioned Hidayatullah. An ROP official mentioned, “We are vigilant regarding such cases. You will often see cautionary messages from the ROP. We have been repeatedly sending out messages but people still fall prey and end up sharing their bank details with fraudsters. They then come to us for help.”
Also study: Phone scam: ROP alerts against sharing personal details, OTP with anyone
Information Source: Muscat Daily
