On May 3, 2023, the National Bank of Ukraine launched the all-Ukrainian information campaign on payment security #FraudGoodbye. It will be a continuation of the first such campaign, which was successfully held in 2020.
Its purpose is to improve citizens' awareness and remind them of the basic safety rules during non-cash payments, especially on the Internet.
During the full-scale war, payment fraud did not disappear, on the contrary, cyber fraud and cybercrime increased. The most popular method of fraud with payment cards in Ukraine, as well as in the world, traditionally remains social engineering.
"We are sure that the #FraudGoodbye campaign is especially relevant during the war when fraudsters take advantage of the vulnerability of citizens, their anxiety, and their predicament. This can only be countered through awareness and critical thinking. It is characteristic that most of the cases when citizens lose their funds arise due to their disclosure of their card data, one-time passwords to confirm operations, and data for entering Internet banking. Half of the total losses from payment card fraud are due to social engineering. They could be avoided by remembering and following the rules of safe use of payment cards, said Andriy Poddyerohin, director of the Department of Payment Systems and Innovative Development. - Thanks to this campaign, the National Bank together with its partners hopes to remind as many citizens as possible, especially young people, who are the most active users, of the important rules of payment security, to increase the awareness of Ukrainians and to continue forming a safe culture of behavior in the virtual space”.
The amount of banks’ losses, merchants, and customers from illegal actions with payment cards for the past year amounted to more than 481 million hryvnias. This is 46% more than in the pre-war year 2021. The number of illegal actions with payment cards, which resulted in losses, increased by 8%.
In 2022, the average amount of one illegal transaction was about 2,200 hryvnias, which is a third more than in 2021 (1,600 hryvnias in 2021).
At the same time, if you calculate the level of losses from illegal actions with payment cards in the total amount of all spending transactions with payment cards, it remained relatively low.
Thus, for one million hryvnias of spending transactions using payment cards, illegal actions/fraudulent transactions accounted for 69 hryvnias. This is not much more than in 2021 (65 hryvnias), but it indicates that last year the amount of losses from fraud grew in proportion to the increase in the amount of transactions with payment cards of Ukrainian banks.
Also, Andriy Poddyerohin added that 86% of the total number of payment fraud cases in 2022 occurred on the Internet, while only 14% occurred through physical devices (retail networks, ATMs, self-service devices).
"Since the beginning of this year, the Department of Cyber Police has already received more than 20,000 appeals from citizens, of which more than 75% are related to fraud on the Internet. We observed similar percentages last year, so countering online fraud remains one of the main areas of work of the cyber police," emphasized the head of the Cyber Police Department of the National Police of Ukraine, police colonel Yuriy Vykhodets.
"Fraudsters become more inventive in the ways they commit crimes. And while banks are constantly working to identify and prevent fraud threats, it's equally important that customers stay informed, learn more about different fraud schemes, and take extra care to protect their financial information. Customer protection is an absolute priority for PRAVEX BANK. To do this, we make significant investments in technology, processes, and training of our employees.
At the same time, while working on the implementation of ESG criteria in our activities, we consider it necessary to increase the importance of accountability, integrity and proper management and rally people to fight fraud," said Semion Babaev, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board, Head of Retail Division of PRAVEX BANK.
Therefore, during the campaign, the National Bank together with its partners will remind citizens about the simple basic rules of payment security. Among the basic rules are:
- it is necessary to keep secret SMS codes from banks and mobile operators, three digits on the back of the card (CVV code), logins and passwords from Internet banking;
- before entering your payment card data or internet banking passwords into any form, you should check the URL address of the required resource, because any differences may indicate that the user is on a phishing site.
In addition, it is planned to carry out large-scale educational work in educational institutions. From April 3 to May 31, 2023, educational events for educational institutions aimed at increasing the level of knowledge of children and young people about payment security will continue, in particular:
- Marathon of ambassadors of the #FraudGoodbye campaign – a project for teachers who fight against payment fraud and conduct educational activities on payment security based on educational materials developed by the National Bank;
- the "Payment security in comics" contest - an initiative during which students will create a comic on the topic of payment security using tools based on artificial intelligence: the ChatGPT chatbot and the Midjourney image generator or Bing Image Creator;
- payment fraud video competition "PaySafe" - an initiative during which pupils and students will create videos with tips on how to protect yourself from common payment fraud scenarios.
A separate website was created for these educational events, which describes the detailed conditions for participation in the marathon and competitions https://promo.bank.gov.ua/marathon-stopfraud/
"We are happy to support the campaign against payment fraud organized by the National Bank of Ukraine. For young people who actively use social networks and share a lot of personal information online, it is extremely important to be aware of scammers and avoid scams. Since Ukraine is moving towards the development of digital finance, it is necessary to understand how to protect data on the Internet and verify payment transactions," commented Robert Bond, head of the USAID Financial Sector Reform Project.
The information campaign will continue until the end of the year in all regions of Ukraine. Within its limits, the National Bank, together with its partners, will inform citizens about how to protect themselves from payment fraud, through the updated thematic web page (landing) #FraudGoodbye with detailed information about the campaign and rules of behavior in the virtual space.
