Beware of Phishing Scams on Social Media

According to Ruta, customers are often ensnared when attempting to check their bank accounts online, after realizing that they had shared key information on the phony website.

Agata Ruta

Agata Ruta, Chief Operations Officer, Belize Bank

“Some of the customers they realize that something is off.  And how can you realize that something is off?  By looking at the domain in your browser.  It’s not Atlantic Bank or Belize Bank, you will have an odd domain with a stream of different letters.  Then you have the different logos in the browser presented as well, instead of our official bank’s logos, you will have a different one just [to] pretend that this is the financial institution.  So some of the customers they actually go ahead and provide the credentials.  Some of them, they realize that something is not right so they close the browser; however, you are still concerned that something happened.  So the minute you realize it, you want to go and check whether your funds are safe and when your device has been compromised, this is when, through the login, you are providing also the credentials to the scammers.  When the account is being compromised then the transactions are going to the accounts, to the crew who participates in the program.  Remember, in the Whatsapp messages they are providing the banking details, so this is the actual account number that they are using to transfer all of the money to and then when the transfers go out, they message people immediately to go to the bank and withdraw money, immediately. They place a lot of urgency on these people as well, you need to be fast, you need to go right now.  The minute they go and they withdraw funds, they are instructed to take this money and transfer this money through remittances, money transfers, either Western Union or Moneygram, outside of Belize.”