Danske Bank forms new Fraud & Cyber Crime team for NI customers

Danske Bank has announced the creation of a new local Fraud & Cyber Crime team of specialists for its Northern Ireland customers.

The threat of fraud and electronic theft have risen rapidly in recent years, with figures in the latest UK Finance Fraud the Facts report indicating a 16% increase in payment fraud throughout 2018. Many of the scams and frauds committed against personal bank accounts occur to elderly and vulnerable people who are tricked into revealing personal information or making payments to people they don't know.

Fraudsters are becoming more sophisticated in how they target people today, using information from public data breaches and harvested from compromised email accounts. The payments are often sent to banks in other countries such as Russia, China, or the United States and are used to fund criminal gang activity, but tackling this problem has to start locally.

Danske Bank has been keen to prevent fraud targeting its customers and currently runs its Keep It Safe initiative giving advice to those affected by frauds and scams. Noting an increase in the number and sophistication of attacks, the bank has now announced a new local team of fraud and cyber-crime specialists for Northern Ireland customers has been formed.

The Fraud & Cyber Crime division is headed up by Chris Wynne and is tasked with reaching customers with news and warnings about the latest tech support, malware and payment detail scams. Chris explained that "The new team will have a focus on being there for our customers when they need us and supporting our colleagues in their interactions with both personal and business customers."

Vicki Hassan, Head of Transaction Banking at Danske Bank, said: "Fraud and cyber crime are growing threats to our customers and our business. All banks are seeing a rise in attacks, with people tricked into revealing personal details or having their information stolen. Danske Bank has established this team because we believe it is essential for our customers to understand the risks and be able to talk directly to experts if they are targeted by a scam."

Source: Written based on press release