Beware of financial scams: Central Bank

The Central Bank said it has received information regarding financial scams where organised parties claim that they have large amounts of foreign and/or local currency credited to their accounts which have been temporarily blocked, and that they would pay a handsome amount to any person who can assist in unblocking such amounts.

“These fraudsters request account details from the customers including details of credit/debit cards such as personal identification numbers (PINs), card verification value (CVV), One-Time-Passwords (OTP) and user ID passwords and OTPs of mobile/internet banking in order to proceed with the transactions,” the CBSL said.

Fraudsters have in some instances sent forged documentation to show that large sums of money had been credited to various accounts and they only need to get the approval of the Central Bank to withdraw such monies.

CBSL urged the public to disregard such fraudulent notifications and practices, and strongly advises all persons to be watchful of these scams. CBSL also advised all persons not to share their confidential information, especially account usernames, passwords, PINs, OTPs or other information required for account verification, with anyone.

Further, the CBSL requested the public to obtain real-time notification services such as SMS alerts, from their banks, so that they would become instantly aware of any fraudulent activity that takes place using their accounts.