“Spoofing”, a technique through which fraudsters disguise their identity by posing as bank employees to steal sensitive data, is certainly one of the most used methods at the moment by cyber criminals, as highlighted by the latest research by CERTFin, a branch of ABI Lab on cybersecurity. According to the survey, in 2023 in Italy 15% of digital banking scams occurred via this technique. For the digital bank ING, the safety of its customers comes first. To combat credit fraud, the online credit institution has activated new services that are helping to significantly reduce this type of scam. The digital bank also focuses on strengthening the financial education of its customers, because a well-informed user is much more difficult to deceive.
Hello, who’s speaking?
The new feature “Is it really ING?” allows customers to verify in real time whether the person calling in the name of ING is actually an employee of the bank. Use the “Is this really ING?” function. it’s very simple. Just open the app or go to the site’s login page www.ing.it and press the «Is it really ING? Verify the call” to activate the verification procedure. It all happens in a few seconds. Once the request has been sent, a message will appear on the customer’s smartphone confirming whether they are actually receiving a phone call from Ing or not. When a possible fraudster calls, you must immediately close the call and report the incident to the credit institution through official channels. ING never asks its customers, via email, text message or phone call, to communicate sensitive data such as security codes, card pins and telephone numbers. Furthermore, the links to Ing’s emails never lead to the access page for the Reserved Area.
“The function “It’s really ING” – he says Damiano Zanisi, Chief Information Officer of ING Italia – it is a step forward to combat a problem of a social nature, which causes significant economic and emotional damage to the victims of scams. With its introduction, our intent was also to promote the culture of verification: the more widespread it is, the more difficult it will be for fraudsters to deceive people.”
Customer well informed, customer saved
There are fifteen information campaigns that the digital bank ING has launched over the last two years to make its customers aware of the risks linked to credit fraud. The campaign themes shed light on the classic techniques used by scammers, from spoofing to phishing. Furthermore, in the last three months, the digital bank has intensified its awareness-creation activities by showing customers specific messages on the risks of cyber crime every time they access the ING app or website to carry out transactions.
In total, 720,000 customers viewed the messages sent by Ing. A number that confirms the success of the campaign. The initiative has contributed to significantly reducing the number of frauds in the last period. ING is also one of the first banks to target romance fraudsters, people who target victims on dating apps and sites, or via social media and traditional messaging services, with the aim of gaining their trust for then send him requests for money. This is a type of scam that is becoming increasingly popular, which is why ING has decided to inform customers about the dynamics that characterize it and the behaviors to adopt to avoid falling into the trap.
Defend yourself from music-based scams
In mid-October ING also launched the social campaign to the rhythm of music “Scams of all kinds”, consisting of five songs from different musical genres, accompanied by videos with animated lyrics. The campaign was designed to advertise the new feature “Is it really ING?” and to inform users in an attractive way on how to defend themselves from the main frauds that occur on the web. “Scams of all kinds” will be on air until the beginning of December on Facebook, Youtube and TikTok. In the first song, “No trap”, the lion Leo, Ing’s mascot, urges us not to fall into the traps of telephone scams, promoting the use of the “Is it really ING?” function. The chorus of the song goes “Scammers bye bye!”.
