ICBC joins forces with the prestigious cybersecurity specialist Julio Ardita and launches an awareness campaign so that people can identify the different types of fraud and how to avoid them. ““Bank fraud in Argentina has a clear growth trend and this campaign very directly helps people have more tools to protect themselves,” Ardita says about it.
Journalist: Tell me who Julio Ardita is in a few words. Your story and how you got here.
Julio Ardita: I am a very passionate person in the things I do: cybersecurity, teaching, travel, mountaineering, etc. For more than 30 years I have been developing through self-study, schools, universities and courses, learning about cybersecurity. I was always very curious in every way and this led me to have an international case in the American justice system in 1995 about intrusions into different systems of entities, governments, universities and companies. After providing full collaboration, I managed to close an agreement with the American Department of Defense and continue dedicating myself to cybersecurity.
In 1996 I founded the first cybersecurity company in Argentina and for more than 25 years I was working with the main companies and organizations in Latin America helping to prevent cybersecurity incidents.
Q: What motivated you to be part of this campaign? What do you consider to be your contribution?
JA: When ICBC approached me with this campaign proposal, I thought it was a brilliant idea, because they talk about fraud in general, but not about bank fraud and this is a massive campaign carried out by a bank to help and raise awareness among people about the different types of fraud and how to prevent them. I think my grain of sand is to tell in a real way what is happening with banking fraud and, above all, how we can prevent it together. Bank fraud in Argentina comes with a clear growth trend and this campaign very directly helps people have more tools to protect themselves.
Q: What are people’s weak points through which scammers manage to commit their crimes?
JA: I believe that people are the weakest link in the chain, since banks, companies and mobile devices include technologies that help prevent this type of fraud, but in general people naturally tend to trust cell phones, in a photo you see, in a message you receive that is very similar to an original message or in a call where someone pretends to be someone else. Scammers exploit what are known as human vulnerabilities, generating positive or negative emotions, through which people tend to trust: they play on the urgency of the case, they assure them that they won a car, a trip or they offer them exorbitant profits.
Q: Why do people hand over their passwords almost without realizing that they are being scammed? Is there a way to protect yourself against scams of this type?
JA: In general, people naturally trust communication, that’s how we are as human beings. Since there is a cell phone in the middle, people tend to trust a message received, a call, we click on a link or follow the instructions of a person who calls us and guides us in a fraudulent operation. The way to protect yourself from this type of scam is to activate the person’s common sense “button”, think a few seconds before responding and be clear that you should never share the username, password or token of our home banking or applications.
Q: Any thoughts or reflections you would like to add?
JA: I believe that this campaign exposed, for the first time, the issue of banking fraud on the table, generating an excellent impact in capturing people’s attention and generating more awareness about current cybersecurity risks.
Stella Laurenti, Communication & Media Manager at ICBC
Journalist: What is the bank’s objective for this campaign?
Stella Laurenti: We focus on raising awareness regarding the caution that people must take to avoid falling into what are popularly called “banking scams.” The scams begin outside the banks, criminals use various strategies to get people to give them the access information to their accounts (username, password and the 6 numbers on the touch) to steal their money. This is called social engineering because, through devices, they manage to manipulate people to establish trust, make them believe that the bank is contacting them and thus obtain sensitive information. It is not the banks that scam, but rather criminals posing as others and this is why we want to carry this message of prevention.
Q: Why does the campaign have a teaser stage?
SL: To generate impact, conversation and achieve interest in the complete campaign, whose ultimate goal is for many people to see the educational content where Julio Ardita explains what scams are like and the measures you have to take to avoid falling.
Q.: Why did you choose Julio Ardita as the face of this campaign?
SL: Because Julio is a recognized expert who has been dedicated to the prevention of scams for more than 20 years and, as he was a hacker, he knows the modalities of crime from the inside. “Someone who knows explains it to you.”
Q: What is disruptive about this campaign?
SL: We broke the mold of the industry, encouraging us to talk about “banking scams” to directly reach people’s interests. In general, we talk about cybercrimes or fraud (without specifying) but the point is that the modalities were growing in diversity and the scams are no longer just digital, but also telephone and in-person. Furthermore, the media and public opinion refer to these cases as “BANK SCAMS” and we do not avoid the topic. We want our clients and people in general who operate with banks and fintechs to know that they must protect themselves and not hand over their confidential data.
Q: What is the ultimate goal of this campaign?
SL: Generate attention and conversation in the teaser stage as a bridge to achieve reach with educational videos (7 this year) that cover the most current cases at this time:
1. Never Google your way into homebanking
2. Beware of fake profiles on social networks
3. Be careful with the emails you receive
4. Don’t let them scam you by phone, WhatsApp, or SMS
5. Don’t hand over your cards, I asked for the posnet
6. Check where the QR you scan takes you
7. Never let someone register a banking product for you.
Here all the ICBC videos | Let’s fight against banking scams.
Source: Ambito
