Dar es Salaam. If you hold an account with a local bank and deposit millions of shillings there, you had better watch out. You could well be deceiving yourself that your money is in safe hands just because you know where you have kept your ATM card.
ATM card skimming is so big in Tanzania today that you can at anytime fall victim to cybercrime through ATM withdrawals. According to our sources, the problem is so rife in the country that cybercriminals operating in various parts of the country are now reportedly withdrawing hundreds of millions of shillings from banks countrywide through ATM cards.
Latest victims
On August 27, Barnabas Mkwayu received an SMS alert from Standard Chartered Bank that Sh300,000 had been withdrawn from his account. He was dazed. “How can this happen when my ATM card is safe in my wallet?” he asked himself.
Three days later, he went to the bank to draw money over the counter and inquire about the suspicious withdrawal. A bank official told him he could not draw any more as he had reached his Sh2 million weekly maximum withdrawal limit.
As he argued with the official, four other SMS alert trickled in--each indicating that Sh400,000 had been withdrawn from his account in four separate transactions. In a panic, he checked his account only to discover another Sh800,000 was gone. ATM cybercriminals had withdrawn the money from Standard Chartered Bank’s ATMs at Masaki Sea Cliff and Oysterbay in two separate attacks. In total, Mr Mkwayu has lost Sh2.7 million.
Another victim, who asked not to be named, lost Sh400,000 in similar circumstances at his CRDB Bank. He was preparing to call it a day at his office in Tabata when he received four SMS alerts showing he had withdrawn all the money in his account. Like, Mr Mkwayu, his ATM card was in his pocket at the time. Although he got back his money, this happened only after nearly two agonising months of going up and down to follow up the case.
The story of these two men represents the frustration and agony of hundreds of bank customers in virtually all local banks who have fallen victim to ATM hackers. Many still struggle to come to terms with the pain of losing millions of shillings in a place they believed to be secure.
Escalating cybercrime has in recent months become an issue of growing concern in Tanzania as the number of people reportedly hacked rises sharply.
Police records show that between 2010 and the first quarter of 2013, cyber fraud-related losses in banks stood at around Sh9.8 billion ($6.10 million).
According to the police cyber crime unit, at least 500 Tanzanians were arrested for fraud between 2011 and 2012. Some 320 people were arrested between July and December 2011 and 230 in 2012 for cybercrime.
Enhanced security features on cards
Yesterday, Standard Chartered Bank acknowledged having received reports of customer cards being compromised but went on to say it has always investigated the cases and assisted the clients affected.
The bank’s corporate affairs manager, Mr Beda Biswalo, told The Citizen on Saturday that people ought to know that card skimming has become a general banking industry issue worldwide. “The banking industry is tackling this challenge collectively,” he added, including launching an awareness campaign to educate clients on how they can keep their ATM cards safe.”
According to the official, the bank has undertaken a massive exercise to enhance security features on its ATM cards. He added: “We have invested in high security ATMs with Anti-skimming Technology. All our ATMs are fitted with CCTV and ATM Pin Shield and are guarded seven days a week.” Mr Mesam Rizvi, director and CEO at Technology Associates Tanzania, says the theft has more to do with cash in transit and ATM cards and not the machines. “This is happening all over the world and not only in Tanzania and any ATM machine is exposed to this kind of electronic fraud,” he explained. “This is a problem banks face all over the world.”
These developments in Tanzania come at a time the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has asked neighbouring Kenya to help arrest a ring of international bank hackers and cyber criminals based in that country. The group, comprising Nigerians, targets banks and has stolen $2.5 billion (Sh4 trillion) from banks and other institutions around the world.
The FBI has named 11 suspects, some of them specialists in ATM card skimming--the illegal copying of information in a card--while three conspire with bank staff to identify accounts with large sums of money.
Banking sources told The Citizen on Saturday that banks have already dished out over Sh900million in compensation for victims of ATM theft.
The Citizen
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