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In Indonesia, scammers use Twitter to prey on big banks’ clients
A recent study by Group-IB Digital found that as of early March, 1,600 fake Twitter accounts were impersonating Indonesia's seven largest financial institutions, putting millions of banking clients at risk.
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A recent study by Group-IB Digital showed that as of early March, 1,600 fake Twitter accounts were impersonating Indonesia's seven largest financial institutions, putting millions of banking clients at risk. (Shutterstock/Artur Szczybylo)
O
n the night of March 12, a Bogor resident who asked to be referred to as Regina lost Rp 4.5 million (US$308) after giving her banking credentials to someone claiming to be a customer service (CS) representative from Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI).
The so-called CS representative contacted Regina after she tagged BNI’s official Twitter account, @BNI, on the social media platform to complain about a problem with her mobile banking account. The person then directed Regina to a WhatsApp chat.
“Because I needed to resolve the issue fast and I was also not careful, I clicked the link they gave me and we chatted via WhatsApp,” she recalled, adding that she gave her 16-digit card number, as well as the three-digit card verification code (CVC) and a one-time password (OTP) sent to her phone.
“I was reluctant to give them my OTP, but they convinced me that they were legitimate. The person even gave me their name and employee identification number,” Regina told The Jakarta Post on April 5.
After realizing that she had been scammed, she went to check with a teller the next day and found that the bank could not trace or return her missing funds.
“They told me that even if I reported the incident, there was no guarantee I could get my money back,” she said. “I hope banks have a way to respond to or block these scammers so that people know which accounts are real.”
Regina is one of 2 million bank clients that cybercriminals have tried to lure into similar scams. The fraudsters impersonated at least seven large Indonesian financial institutions, according to a report by Group-IB, a global threat hunting and cyber intelligence company.
