Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM) is sounding the alarm during this holiday season. The Central Bank, following information from the Directorate General of National Security (DGSN), told banks in the kingdom that a scam is targeting their customers across the kingdom.
BAM invited the banks of the kingdom to be vigilant against a monetary scam of the "skimming" type. In an internal note, dated December 23, of which Hespress FR has a copy, the Central Bank indicates that ill-intentioned individuals would target ATMs in the kingdom, in order to steal citizens' banking data.
In this sense, two official sources well informed on this subject explained to us that the newsletter in question is primarily intended for banks, and should in no case be available to citizens, in order to avoid any state no panic needed. That said, our interlocutors confirmed to us that the risk in question is significant, since it is "a little difficult" to identify the targeted terminals.
What is skimming?
Concretely, skimming is the theft of banking data at the very level of ATMs. This is done through the use of a fraudulent card reader and a special keyboard, interposed on the real input terminals of ATMs. Once a customer’s card is inserted, hackers can scan all of the bank data and save it to a blank card later. This allows you to have an exact copy of a bank card, which can be used subsequently to carry out various transactions, without the customers' knowledge, and which cannot be identified by consulting the bank history, or following the detection of "abnormal" transactions by the bank.
There are two methods in this scam, the first of which consists of copying user data via the magnetic stripe present on the back of bank cards, while the second allows you to completely duplicate all bank information via the fraudulent keyboard, in addition to '' a miniature camera which can give a remote view of the operations carried out by the victims.
DGSN on the lookout
As part of the efforts made by the bloodhounds of Abdellatif Hammouchi, director general of the DGSN, with regard to the fight against this type of fraud, the Directorate proceeded to arrest, between December 13 and 15, equipment used in the context of skimming scams. This seizure was made in Marrakech, where the DGSN was able to find several ATMs tampered with in different agencies of the ocher city.
How can we protect ourselves?
It is difficult to identify a priori "fraudulent" ATMs. Indeed, they can very well replicate normal terminals, but it is however possible to make a few gestures in order to avoid having their bank data stolen.
Thus, it is advisable to perform a visual scan of any ATM that is used. If something looks suspicious, it's a good idea to find out if the keyboard or card reader is mobile. In the event that they can be taken off, worse, find the presence of a deception, it is advisable to notify the competent authorities. There are even mobile applications that can identify the presence of devices connected by Bluetooth to fraudulent terminals, which have a special name.
Bank Al-Maghrib thus invites the banks to take the necessary measures in this direction, while the DGSN invites banking establishments and their customers to report cases of fraud to its services.
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