A top banking official has said customers who have lost money from their accounts with their knowledge must prove they are victims of fraud in order to claim their money back. Talaat Hafez, secretary-general of the Banking Committee for Information and Awareness, however said protecting clients from fraud "is not always the bank's responsibility." In a statement to Okaz/Saudi Gazette, Hafez said: "If the occurrence of fraud is proved, the matter will take another turn, because this will considered part of cyber crimes. Here concerned authorities intervene to find out the circumstances and determine the responsibility. If there was negligence on the part of the client who unwittingly disclosed the account's PIN number, the responsibility will fall completely on him or her. In some cases, it would be difficult to recover the amount, especially if the website that has been dealt with was fake or illegal." He pointed out that the possibility of recovering the money is determined by relevant bodies responsible for information and electronic crimes. "Client fraud is not always the bank's responsibility. The scam becomes an IT crime to be handled by the concerned authorities," said Hafez. Hafez was reacting to a report in Okaz daily, which confirmed at least five consecutive and successful attempts by an unknown international group to withdraw money from the account of a local bank client. All attempts involved the same amount of money. "In some cases, scammers could obtain enough information about a client to carry out the fraud. If the client deals with shops abroad, whether for goods or services, without sufficient security protection, their accounts become vulnerable to penetration. This is one way the scammers obtain information about customers," said Hafez.
