Emirates NBD 's anti-phishing campaign warns users against fraudsters

Emirates NBD in partnership with Dubai Police collaborated with Leo Burnett, Dubai to launch a UAE-wide anti-phishing awareness campaign, educating users on how to identify and protect themselves against fraudsters.

The public service campaign is part of Emirates NBD’s ongoing initiatives to remind customers although fraudsters might be sitting miles away, the internet brings them dangerously closer to us. It urges viewers to never share their password or CVV, never trust unverified vaccine registrations links, and never wire money or make a donation without proper verification. Because when they do not verify the source, they make a fraudster’s job easy.

The social satire comedy film ‘How To Grow Rich During The Pandemic’, showcases the lavish lifestyle of a fictional fraudster named James Jefferson playing different roles as he impersonates legitimate organizations via various means in order to steal sensitive information, with the serious message “Don’t Make the Fraudster’s Job Easy. The film was accompanied by a stealth social media campaign following the outrageous life of James Jefferson via his Instagram handle @jjj_jefferson who was finally revealed as a fraudster.

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Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jallaf, Director of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) at Dubai Police says, “Dubai Police continues to intensify its outreach efforts to strengthen financial security and prevent identity theft among users of online banking. This is in addition to our ongoing security awareness campaigns targeted at all segments of society. We remain committed to continue playing an active role in enhancing security awareness among the public and urge banking consumers to take all precautions and measures to remain protected against fraud.”

The new effort follows the success of Emirates NBD's previous #SecureYourAccount campaign video with awareness lyrics amended to the tune of a popular and catchy pop song as it engaged customers while demonstrating the positive power of social media and humor in raising awareness of serious issues.

Abdulla Qassem, Group Chief Operating Officer, Emirates NBD, said, “As the UAE’s leading bank, we are at the forefront of efforts in the UAE to tackle banking fraud and cybercrime on all fronts. Fraudsters typically target individuals with various online scams to manipulate them into handing over account credentials or personal identity information in order to steal their funds. Human error and greed remain the biggest vulnerability to such scams and awareness is our best defense. Our latest campaign aims to educate and engage consumers to join hands with banks and law enforcement in our collective efforts against fraud, while also bringing them a small dose of creative humor to make this very serious social message memorable.”

Phishing and online scams are one of the most common and most dangerous internet threats facing individuals and organisations today. Phishing is a type of attack carried out to extract personal information such as usernames, passwords, credit card information, and other sensitive data from victims to hack into their accounts and steal their funds or resources, or cause disruption and reputational harm.