CB issues fresh warning to public on financial scams

The Central Bank this week issued a fresh warning to the public to be on alert on financial scams. 

The Central Bank said it has been receiving information regarding certain financial scams recently, where organised parties claim to be in possession of large sums of foreign and/or local currency in their accounts, which have been temporarily blocked. The scammers promise to pay a handsome amount to those who would assist in unblocking such amounts.  While the scammers may also show documentation that large sums of money had been credited to various accounts, they would claim they only need to get the approval of the Central Bank to withdraw such monies. 

The Central Bank cautioned that in some of these instances, the 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. 

“Furnishing such details place those customers at grave financial peril. The CBSL urges the public to disregard such fraudulent notifications and practices and strongly advises all persons to be watchful of these scams,” the financial sector regulator said. 

The Central Bank also advises all persons not to share their confidential information, especially account usernames, passwords, PINs, OTPs or other information required for account verification, with anyone. 
To not fall victim to such scams, the Central Bank 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.