Amid a probe carried out by the Jamaica Observer based on fraud and scamming complaints from NCB’s customers, the bank has provided some advice to prevent such occurrences.

NCB advises that it will never call to ask customers about their authorisation code that is used to activate their credit card. The bank says it will also never ask customers for their PIN, password or any other private and personal information that is used to access online banking facilities, credit or debit cards.

As such, the bank is warning customers who have received a call from anyone purporting to be a bank employe, asking customers to provide any of this information, to make note of the telephone number (if possible) and report it to the bank immediately.

• Public Wi-Fi: Never enter your card number or personal details when using public Wi-Fi. Criminals can gain access to the connection to capture your card and personal information for their vindictive purposes.

• Secured websites: Only use your card on ‘https’-secured websites that you already know and trust. Criminals create new websites daily to capture your personal information and card details.

• Be extra careful: Always ensure that your credit card is processed within your view; never allow anyone to walk away or be out of your view with your card. Also, pay attention when using your card at POS terminals. Criminals are becoming more creative and employing the use of fake POS machines to capture customer data like debit and credit card information and PIN numbers. They do this by using a dummy machine which stores your data and then will inform you that the machine is malfunctioning, thus requiring them to swipe your card again on another machine. If this happens, ask to speak to the supervisor or manager to verify that the POS terminal that was used legitimately belongs to the business and is not a fake, offline machine.

• Ensure that your bank has your most up to date contact information (both mobile phone number and email address) so that you can benefit from transaction alerts.

• Activate NCB Alerts: Call NCB or visit the nearest branch to get transaction alerts via text messages whenever your credit card is used. This way, you will be able to quickly identify and report any suspicious transactions on your NCB credit card.

NCB is encouraging customers to utilise transactions alerts, which are in place for all credit cards and online banking customers. Also note that all NCB debit card customers will soon benefit from these alerts as well, once NCB launches their VISA debit product in a few weeks.