Jeddah - Customers of the National Commercial Bank (NCB), better known as Al-Ahli, have been defrauded with a fake website which looks almost exactly the same as Al-Ahli's official one.
Mohammed Al-Mari, head of media affairs for NCB, said that that bank has only one site.
Al-Meri was surprised to hear about the fake website and said he would call customers to be aware of such attempts to scam them.
"Unfortunately, we can not sue the men behind the website because they are unknown," Al-Meri said.
Al-Ahli Bank will soon issue a warning to its customers regarding this issue.
The fake site, however, targeted Al-Ahli customers by sending thousands of emails asking them to update their personal information.
Before the victims sign in to update, the website asks for the customer's account number and PIN code.
This information would then be used by whoever created the site to try and access customers' bank accounts.
"Our updates are always done at the bank, not by Internet or telephone," Al-Meri said.
Saudi Gazette traced the fake domain name of Al-Ahli Bank and discovered that the website IP is located in Germany.
According to Khaled Abu Nada, a customer of SAMBA, most Saudi banks have been hit with similar attempts.
Abu Nada received an email that invited him to update his account details.
"Once I entered my account number and password the web site was closed. I thought it was a technical error," he said.
Later on, he discovered that his wallet was under attack.
"When I tried to use my ATM card the machine refused to accept it. When I went to my branch, they told me that it had been a trick by an organized gang," Abu Nada said.
HOW TO PROTECT YOUR ACCOUNT
If you ever get an email containing an Internet link, and a request for you to enter your details, treat it as suspicious.
Do not input any sensitive information that might help provide access to your accounts, even if the page appears legitimate.
Remember, banks will not send emails of this type to customers.
To verify if a web page is real, click the padlock in the lower right corner of the browser and verify the "secure server certificate." If the padlock is not present, then treat the site as false.
© The Saudi Gazette 2007
