Lviv region law enforcement officers have uncovered a large-scale fraudulent scheme organized by employees of one of the banks. It was established that six bank employees, including the head of the branch, appropriated clients' funds by reissuing their bank cards without the owners' knowledge. This was reported by the Main Directorate of the National Police.
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What is known
According to the cyber police, the amount of stolen funds exceeds 1 million hryvnia, withdrawn from 19 accounts.
The suspects operated during 2023-2024 and took advantage of the fact that some of the clients whose accounts they stole were located in the temporarily occupied territories or in the southern and eastern regions of Ukraine.
As RBC-Ukraine writes, we are talking about employees of Oschadbank.
How the scheme worked
The fraudulent scheme worked according to a well-thought-out algorithm. Bank employees gained access to clients' data and changed their financial phone number to one controlled by the attackers. Thanks to this, they could log into the online banking system on behalf of the clients, gaining full access to their accounts.
Since reissuing a bank card usually requires the owner to be present in person, fraudsters have found a way to bypass this requirement. They used special software to change the customer's photos in the bank's system, creating the illusion that the person actually visited the branch.
After making all the necessary changes, the branch manager personally received the reissued card at the bank’s cash desk.
After that, the criminals immediately used it to withdraw cash. They withdrew the stolen funds through ATMs or POS terminals, in particular directly at the bank branch.
During the investigation, draft records with the details of clients who became victims of the crime, bank cards, telephones and other technical devices used in the scheme, as well as documents and digital evidence confirming illegal financial transactions were seized.
The suspects are charged with violations of Part 3, 5 of Article 27, Part 3 of Article 28, Part 1, 3 of Article 362 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (Unauthorized actions with information processed in electronic computers).
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