Protection Against Fraud

Fraudsters make plans to convince the victims of the financial situation that seems to be financially attractive and convince them to transfer money. In fact, their sole purpose is to take the victims' money. When they are defrauded, most customers mistakenly believe that they will obtain financial gain. Generally, the common point in customer fraud is that the sender does not have a personal connection with the receiver.

Do not send money to a person you do not personally know. Fraudsters sometimes encourage people to transfer money. Do not transfer money to a person who wants you to send money to him for the following purposes:

• An emergency situation you have not confirmed.

• Anti-virus protection.

• Claiming to win a lottery or prize.

• Tax payment.

• Help donation.

• Assignment as a secret customer.

• Job opportunity.

• Credit card or credit fee.

• Resolving a matter related to migration.

Below you can find the major ones of these fraud trends and scenarios:
PREPAYMENT / CHARGE FEE SCAM

The victim is asked to make a prepayment for financial services that are never provided. After the payment is made, the communication channels related to the defrauder are closed and the promised credit will never be passed on to the victim.

CHARITABLE FOUNDATION DONATION SCAM

Fraudsters consider natural disasters and incidents that require emergency humanitarian assistance as an opportunity and convey their donation requests based on emotional exploitation to the victims via e-mails by using the name of the voluntary organizations. What should not be forgotten here is that charities do not ask donors to send money transfers in the name of a real person.

EMERGENCY ASSISTANCE SCAM

The victim is convinced by fraudsters that a loved one needs urgent help. Fraudsters take advantage of their worries by pushing the victim to make quick decisions.

FRAUD BY EMPLOYMENT PROMISE

The victim applies for a job that looks very attractive and is hired for a fictitious job, and then a payment is demanded for the costs associated with the work.

CHOOSING THE ELDERLY AS A TARGET

Fraudsters who introduce themselves as doctors, lawyers or prosecutors call elderly people and tell them that they need to pay for certain expenses such as bail or medical assistance for their children, grandchildren or loved ones. They try to the trap the elderly people by creating pressure on them through the importance and urgency of the matter.

SELECTING THE MIGRANTS AS A TARGET

Fraudsters reach the victims by introducing themselves as immigration officers. A lie is told that there are some deficiencies in the immigration records, and that these deficiencies can give rise to a very serious problem and that payment is needed in order to start several processes without coming to the official bureau, and the victim is directed to make the money transfer.

INTERNET SALES

Using the name of any shopping website, it is the method of selling products that never actually reach the victim. Today, internet auctions are popular among consumers. Buyers are presented with a "virtual" market where they can choose between endless varieties of products. However, online auctions are as risky as they are advantageous. Most shopping platforms create security layers that will ensure trade security and prevent potential fraud cases. But money transfers made directly to a name and buying products or services from a source that cannot be confirmed are very risky.

Fraudsters prepare false advertisements, links and internet sites and announce their so-called very affordable products to their victims. Generally, the contents make an impression that they were prepared without care and copied from a place. When they communicate with the fraudsters, customers who are affected by the price of the product and who show interest in it are informed that the payment is by money transfer only on behalf of one person. Victims who transfer money on behalf of the specified person will never receive the actual goods or service.

TAX PAYMENT SCAM

Fraudsters introduce themselves with a title such as tax inspector / expert etc. and contact with the victim. The purpose is to convince the victim that the victim has an unpaid tax debt. It is said that if the transactions are not started immediately, the victim's bank accounts and his passport will be confiscated. Fraudsters demand a preliminary payment in order to postpone the confiscation operations temporarily and start the so-called procedural transactions and to save time for the victim. It should not be forgotten that no official institution worker will collect the transaction fee with a money transfer directly made to his / her own name.

LOTTO AND GAMES OF CHANCE SCAM

It is said to the victim he or she is the winner of a game of chance. However, in order to receive the award, a number of procedural payments such as taxes and expenses are required to be completed. In order to complete the aforementioned payments, the victim is asked to transfer money in the name of a real person. The victim puts up with the cost of the expenses by thinking that he or she will have a greater financial gain. When payment is made, he/she has been defrauded.

EXCESSIVE PAYMENT SCAM
When buying a product or service, the fraudsters make a payment much higher than it should be by using a dud check or fake check. The victim is requested to send the excess payment through the money transfer service. If the victim transfers money to the name of the fraudster without checking the check, he or she will be trapped.

FALSE FLIRT DECEPTION

The victim is fooled by a person he or she has met through a website or mobile application, and made believe to be experiencing a special relationship. Scammers request financial assistance for costs of travelling, ticket, visa, etc. with the promise of meeting the victim. Each time they find another excuse, hence they can never come to meet and they will increase the amount they demand.

PROPERTY FOR RENT SCAM

Fraudsters who say they sell or rent a very affordable property or car over the Internet can trick their victims by asking for a deposit or a down payment

Fraudsters may disappear in the cyber world leaving little legal way to buyers to appeal. Although BPN / Western Union has nothing to do with these sellers, our customers can be a victim of this type of fraud activities.

If you want to be protected from the fraud attempts mentioned above, please pay attention to the following tips:

• Never share details of your transaction (MTCN, amount, the country sent, the receiver etc. sensitive payment data) with third parties.

• For an item that is expensive or difficult to find, you get a good offer that is too good to be real as the lowest price; please check all references related to the vendor before purchasing.

• If you meet a seller who accepts payment by money transfer only as an auction obtained from the internet, start to suspect and investigate thoroughly.

• You are told that you have won a lottery or prize; however, if you are asked to pay taxes or commissions to get the prize, definitely do not believe. Because legal organizations will not ask you for money before you have taken the lottery or other awards.

• If someone claims that he or she has found your missing pet or jewel in response to your advertisement and asks you to send money as a shipping fee or a reward, ask them to provide information about your pet that is not available on the advertisement, so that you can understand this person really has your pet.

• You are selling goods and you receive a check that much more than the price you wanted is written, but if you are asked to return the extra amount, do not make any money transfer without finding out from the bank whether the check is real or not and without cashing the check.

• If a low-cost loan is offered but the fees or the first few installments are demanded to be paid, do not make a payment. Do not forget that credit issuer institutions will not want you make advance payment without getting your credit

• When you get a job offer with attractive offers such as the possibility to work at home, only a couple of hours a day, and earning with a commission of up to ten per cent, and although the possibility to earn a lot of money by working little offered by this proposal is tempting, Keep in mind that these offers are usually made for the purpose of fraud.

• Be careful about online sellers who only sell in return for money transfer. Many legal vendors accept multiple payment methods.

• Check all references or "feedback" related to the seller before making a purchase. Nevertheless, do not forget that references and "feedback" can be created by the vendor and may be fake

MATTERS TO BE CONSIDERED BY REPRESENTATIVES

Every Representative employee - user has to complete his training of preventing the laundering of the proceeds of crime, financing of terrorism and fraud before the start of using the BPN money transfer system.The agent evaluates customer behavior, transactions and the responses he or she gets from the customer under the "Know Your Customer" principles, and refuses the transaction if he /she suspects that the customer is a victim of fraud.

All Representatives must analyze the following customer behaviors. Users should be careful about the following customer behaviors, and should ask the customer additional questions in order to prevent a potential fraud attempt.

• Anxious or confused looking customers, especially old people and dependent adults.

• Extremely excited customers according to someone using the money transfer service.

• Customers who send money due to an emergency, but have concerns about the situation.

• Nervous and excited customers because they are transferring such a large sum for the first time in their lives.

• Customers who send money for the first time to an unknown person.

• Customers who fall into a deception that they are buying products with phone marketing.

NOTE: All elderly and needy people should be asked whether they know the person to whom they want to transfer money. Because these people can easily become the target of fraudsters.

If fraudsters directly target the representative employees;

Representatives and service points can also be targets of direct fraudsters. The following common methods for these attempts are evaluated.

PHONE SCAMS

By calling the representative, fraudsters try to convince employees to access the computer system. Once they have access, they make money transfers that will make the representative incur a financial loss.

• Remote access deception: The fraudster calls the representative and identifies himself as a BPN / WU technician. He says that he needs to remotely connect to the computer within the scope of an updating work. If remote access is allowed, the entire control is obtained by the fraudster.
• Leakage into the computer: By calling / e-mailing the representative, the fraudster introduces himself / herself as BPN / WU official. Clicking on the trap links or opening e-mails may cause the user ID and password to be shared with unauthorized persons.
• Test procedure deception: The fraudster calls the representative and introduces himself / herself as BPN / WU official. He/she directs the user to make one or several test outbound money transactions in order to check that the system is working properly. If the user follows the instructions and carries out the transactions, it means he/she has been defrauded. These will be fraudulent transactions that result in material damage, which are realized without collecting transaction fees.
• Code entry: The fraudster calls the representative and introduces himself / herself as BPN / WU official. The fraudster demands that the so-called form he/she will send is filled in. Information that provides transaction security and confidentiality, such as sensitive payment data and customer personal information, is requested and attempts are made to collect the amounts with these pieces of information.

E- E-MAIL SCAM

Fraudster try to sneak in the computers of the representatives by sending e-mails to them through a method known as feeding.

• E-mails from an unknown sender,

• Unexpected / unrequested e-mails,

• E-mails containing a generic description in their context,
• E-mails requesting personal information,

• E-mails trying to create the conception of being urgent and important

can be potential fraud attempts each. Representatives are required not to open such e-mails and those which are similar to them, and not to click links that are transmitted in this way, and not to share personal information such as the username and password on any platform.

FINAL WORD

• Never make a money transaction with an incoming phone call or by an e-mail.

• Do not talk to anyone other than the customer about the details of the money order transaction.

• Never send a money transfer before taking money from the sender.

• Notify BPN without delay about your users who newly start their jobs.

• Install an antivirus program recommended by BPN Payment Authority Inc. and ensure it is up-to-date. Do not open emails from people you do not know or do not recognize.

• You can review the Compliance Policy, Customer Recognition Procedure, False ID Detection Document, Valid Identification Types and Fraud Case Study under the "documentation" heading on the WebMTS money transfer screen.