Cyber fraudsters target UAE residents’ credit cards

ABU DHABI // International cyber fraudsters have targeted customers of two leading banks with illicit card transactions worth thousands of dirhams.

Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi sent text messages to customers warning them about the fraudulent transactions. The banks have taken steps to prevent further illicit card use, including blocking and reissuing cards. NBAD said it was “routine protection”.

Several ADCB customers had unauthorised charges placed on their cards, from Dh1,500 to Dh8,000, at Target clothing stores in the United States.

An Abu Dhabi resident had a charge of Dh1,900 on his card during Eid. He was told it could take 120 days to restore the funds to his account.

Mohamad Amin Hasbini, of the internet security Kaspersky Labs, which has offices in Dubai, said another recent theft of data had affected cardholders from a number of banks in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.

“We don’t really have exact details,” he said. “What we know is that several hundred cardholders were affected. It’s not a small number, but it’s also not a big one.”

He said the security breach was most probably the work of an organised criminal group, whose hackers were able to break into the network of a third-party organisation, such as a company that processes credit card payments, issues credit cards or provides related services for banks.

Mr Hasbini said the extent of financial damage caused by the breach, of which he was notified on Tuesday, had yet to be assessed.

Cyber attacks have been connected in the past, but Mr Hasbini said there was no evidence to link the recent attacks.

In 2013, RAKBank and Bank Muscat were defrauded to the tune of US$45 million after two companies in India that processed payments for MasterCard had their networks hacked.

“We hope that this isn’t as big, and that it was contained very fast,” Mr Hasbini said.

esamoglou@thenational.ae