Biometric authentication uses biological identifiers such as fingerprints, irises, voices and facial features and is considered the most secure from frauds. — Photo www.24h.com.vn

Vietcombank has warned about a new form of fraud, impersonating bank staff to support biometric updates, in order to steal banking service information.

According to new rules, banks now require biometric details for each online transaction worth above VNĐ10 million (US$392.65) or daily transactions exceeding VNĐ20 million.

The law came into effect on July 1 and has led to a warning that fraudsters are already trying to take advantage of the change.

Implementing Decision No 2345/QĐ-NHNN dated December 18, 2023, of the State Bank of Việt Nam, Vietcombank deployed biometric authentication for some types of online transactions and will require biometric information.

Biometric authentication uses biological identifiers such as fingerprints, irises, voices, and facial features and is considered the most secure protection from frauds. The regulation is to foster security for bank accounts and prevent financial frauds which are on the rise in Việt Nam.

However in the early phases of it being implemented and taking advantage of the fact some customers had difficulty updating biometric information, fraudsters impersonated bank employees to contact customers to request "support" for biometric installation to appropriate customers' assets and information.

Vietcombank said that common fraud methods are calling, texting and making friends with customers via social networks such as Zalo and Facebook to instruct the collection of biometric information.

They also created confusing nicknames such as 'Bank Staff' or 'Customer Support' and interacted with customers under posts on the bank's official social networking sites to ask customers to contact them privately to fraudulently obtain customers' banking service information.

Fraudsters often ask customers to provide personal and bank account information, citizen identification images or images of customers' faces for support. They can even request a video call to collect more verbal examples and gestures.

They often ask customers to access strange links to download and install applications that support biometric collection on their phones. After obtaining customer information, they will proceed to appropriate money from the customer's bank account.

Vietcombank has recommended that customers do not click on links or provide account security information, digital banking services (login name, password, OTP code), card services (card number, OTP), account information or any banking service security information and personal information because the bank does not require customers to provide personal information through channels such as calling, SMS, email, social networks like Zalo, Viber and Facebook messenger.

Vietcombank also recommends that customers do not share personal information, banking services and transaction information on social networks to avoid being scammed.

In case of having difficulty with updating biometric information or performing biometric authentication with online transactions, customers can go to the nearest Vietcombank transaction point for direct support and be consulted by bank staff.

On the first day of implementing the new biometric authentication for some types of online transactions, there was local network congestion for applications of some banks such as VCB Digibank of Vietcombank or Sacombank Pay of Saigon Thương Tín Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Sacombank).

According to bank representatives, the sudden increase in the need to update biometric information on the first day of implementing the new regulations has disrupted the online transaction systems of several banks. — VNS