Who can you contact when facing a case of fraud?

You received a suspicious e-mail, which you did not respond to

Forward the suspicious e-mail as an attachment to our specialists at phishing@bnpparibasfortis.com. They will try to eliminate the fraudulent website as soon as possible.

You shared an electronic signature or other confidential information (by telephone or on a website), you entered information into suspicious screens in PC banking or you clicked on a link in a suspicious e-mail.

Please contact our Help Desk.

• PC banking/PC banking Pro +32 (0)2 228 08 88
• PC banking Business +32 (0)2 565 05 00
• Central Competence Centre Connexis +32 (0) 2 228 47 77
• Isabel +32 (0) 2 404 03 35
• Isabel (BNP Paribas Fortis) + 32 (0) 2 565 28 34  

Please contact your relationship manager immediately.

You are facing a different type of fraud

Please contact your relationship manager immediately

Do you have any further questions about how you can actively protect yourself against the risk of fraud?

Discuss them with your relationship manager. They can give you formal advice in person or appeal to the bank's specialists to discuss the specific risks for your organisation (in terms of your payment services or financial products, for example).

Organised and professional fraud have not only become more common, the approach of fraudsters is also increasingly subtle, bold and sophisticated, particularly if they are targeting organisations' financial transactions.

They mostly use (a combination of) the following techniques:

Fake or forged transfers

This technique means that the fraudsters send fake "manual" transfers, i.e. paper transfer forms, letters or faxes, to their target's bank. The signatures on these payment orders tend to be perfectly recreated and can barely be distinguished from the original.

Forged invoices

In this case real invoices are intercepted and forged before they reach the debtor or the bank. This takes place at the postal service or at the organisation itself in cases of internal fraud.
The fraudsters then change the beneficiary's account number. For invoices this is often done with a sticker asking you to make your payment to a new account number from now on – hence the name "sticker fraud" – but nowadays devices or software are also used to create near perfect forgeries.

Social engineering and phishing

This form of fraud is based on manipulation: the fraudsters try to mislead their victims by urging them to perform certain transactions, usually involving the transfer of money. To make their orders seem real, they first collect names, direct telephone numbers, account balances, order or customer lists, etc.
This data is usually gathered from public websites or social media or even by retrieving non-shredded documents from bins. However, sometimes the fraudsters also contact the victim directly. They do this in an exceptionally convincing way, for example by pretending to be a member of the management or a colleague from a foreign branch. This type of fraud often results in heavy losses that are sometimes accompanied by extra damage in terms of solvency and the capacity to pay back loans.
Phishing is a specific sub-form of social engineering used by criminals to "fish" for personal data, mainly by e-mail, that enables them to steal money from a bank account at a later stage. This is often done by inspiring a "feeling of fear": they claim that your PIN code has expired or that your account will be closed if you do not respond immediately. In order to increase the fraud's chances of success, the criminals often call the victims in order to "guide" them (also called "vishing").
Whereas phishing is mainly known through mass mailings – a large group of people will receive the same, often rather amateurish personalised e-mail – we have now also noticed a shift in direction towards "spear phishing". Spear phishing means that the fraudsters focus on a very limited number of victims, after they have gathered as much personal information as possible in order to make their message as plausible as possible. These victims are obviously a "lucrative" target for the fraudsters: with affluent private individuals or companies, the loot is often much greater

Hacking

Whereas social engineering is mainly based on human shortcomings, hacking focuses on technical or material shortcomings. It all starts with a virus that hackers smuggle into your computer. This program collects your data and observes what you are doing. When you open an online banking session shortly afterwards, the hacker is informed. They can then make a pop-up appear on your screen urging you to confirm a payment order or enter your secret code, for example.
Nowadays hackers also increasingly commit multi-channel fraud, during which they call you during your online banking session to request confidential information.

Infiltration

A number of recent fraud cases show that a new and particularly alarming fraud technique is on the rise. An accomplice of the fraudsters seeks employment with the targeted organisation and becomes familiar with the payment and monitoring procedures. After a few months, this "sleeping fraudster" will carry out one or several large transfers to the fraudsters' account and disappear into thin air.

Fraud is certainly not something that only happens to other people. It is therefore imperative to give prevention the time and attention it deserves. With some relatively small actions, you can considerably reduce the risk of becoming a victim of fraud. And of course, you are not alone in the struggle against fraud!

What is being done by your bank?

Just like fraud itself, fraud control has also become a fully-fledged specialisation. BNP Paribas Fortis is strongly committed to fraud control and makes the necessary resources available in this respect. A whole series of systems and measures have already been introduced to stop these professional fraudsters in their tracks:

• Prevention through permanent training for the bank's employees and internal and external communication;
• Inspection and tracking systems to detect any abnormal transactions, even if the payment seems perfectly fine (correct channel, correct signatures, etc.). Your relationship manager may have already contacted your company to have a transaction confirmed.
  A lot of attention is also paid to tracking and eliminating so-called "money mules". intermediaries who make their bank account available (either unwittingly or maliciously) to criminals in order to transfer stolen money abroad;
• Analysis and improvement systems used in cases when fraud unfortunately occurred or new fraud techniques or trends are surfacing.

These resources are certainly not watertight, but they make it possible to reduce the risk substantially. The bank also deploys specialists who are fully committed to fraud detection and prevention. They also conduct in-depth investigations into fraud incidents, file claims with the police and take the necessary measures to protect and recover any embezzled money.

Which measures can you take?

1. Thorough information, the basis of an effective prevention policy

• Explain that this risk exists and that your employees should consider all forms of information as tangible company assets – there is no such thing as "innocent" data.
• Encourage them to critically investigate and to report any questions deviating from the normal state of affairs.
• Work on developing a monitoring culture within the workplace. This does not need to affect a serene working atmosphere or trust between colleagues however.
• Be wary of any change of habits in your customers or suppliers. For example, if you are asked to make an invoice payment to an account abroad although you usually make your payments to a domestic account, this could indicate that something is wrong. Be sure to check this with your customer or supplier through known, reliable communication channels.

2. Protect your IT systems

First of all, some nuance is warranted: despite reports in the press about hacking and other fraud attempts, PC banking Business, Connexis and Isabel are still by far the safest channels for your financial transactions. However, we recommend you observe the following rules:

• Install an anti-virus program and a firewall on your computer and update these systematically.
• Do not respond to any questions by telephone. Your bank will never ask you for a code or any confidential information by telephone.
• Only open the PC banking Business or Isabel session. In other words, make certain that other websites are never active.
• Only sign the transactions that you were expecting or that you entered yourself with your electronic codes. If in doubt, stop the current transaction immediately.
• Do not click on links to the bank's website, particularly if they have been sent by e-mail. Always type the URL yourself.
• Take the time to establish whether any suspicious transactions were made, such as transfers to unknown or foreign accounts.

3. Do not allow any phishing for your data

All in all, phishing is relatively rare. Nevertheless, you may suddenly receive an e-mail that looks exactly like a message from your bank. Remember that your bank will never ask you for any personal data by e-mail (or telephone). If you do receive such a request, it will not be from the bank.

Other possible indications are poor language in the message, an incorrect salutation or the fact that the mail ended up in the spam folder. We recommend you mark a phishing e-mail as "unwanted e-mail" in your e-mail application. You can also report the offence to your internet provider, so the sender can be blocked.

4. Block fake paper transfers

If you are a frequent user of electronic banking, you can ask your relationship manager to block your accounts to limit the risk of fake paper transfers. Of course, this does not mean that all transactions are automatically stopped!

However, when BNP Paribas Fortis receives a manual payment order for one of the blocked accounts, our systems will automatically refuse the transaction and inform your relationship manager, who will contact you to verify whether this transaction can indeed be executed.

If you are unable to use your electronic banking channels and you need to switch to paper transactions because of a computer problem, for example, all you need to do is inform your relationship manager.

From the Global Information Security Survey it appears that 1 in 2 Belgian companies does not feel able to track down sophisticated cyber-attacks.

The annual Global Information Security Survey looked at the cyber security of 1,755 organisations from 67 countries, including 56 from Belgium. The results from our country are, to say the least, alarming: half of respondents do not currently feel able to detect a sophisticated cyber-attack, while according to 88% the architecture for securing information does not fully meet the needs of their organization.

The respondents are most concerned about cyber-attacks by criminal organisations (54%), hacktivists (54%), hackers working solo (53%) and – surprisingly – their own employees (40%). Phishing and malware are also high on the list of potential threats.

Five to midnight

Although the respondents realise that cyber fraud is becoming ever more sophisticated and that danger lurks around many corners, less than half have a team for system security. The reason is simple: the vast majority of respondents admit they have no qualified employees available and/or find it difficult to attract people with the necessary skills.

27% do not analyse any cyber threats, while 21% do not even have any identity and access management. In other words, the door to the digital world is wide open to a whole host of trouble. Modernisation of security is therefore urgently needed.

(Source: EY and De Tijd)

Coordinating a company's social media strategy is a task in itself. Who will you use to handle this? And what about involved customers who suddenly get too involved?

Because of social media, the role of a traditional marketing manager is evolving more and more towards being a conversation manager: someone who facilitates consumer communication. This includes communication between customers themselves and communication between the customers and the company.

Some key tasks in the conversation manager's job description are:

• Uniting and activating ‘branded fans’, as they will recommend the brand to friends and family.
• Listening to what people are saying about your company and seeking their active contribution to your products and strategy.
• Creating content worth distributing in order to encourage discussions.
• Managing these discussions.
• Ensuring your work is very customer-oriented and customer-friendly through customer care, i.e.by responding faster and providing more than what the customer is expecting.

Some companies are big enough to hire a full-time conversation manager. In other cases another employee will take on this role part-time. A third possibility is using a specialised company.
Caroline Hombroukx, conversation manager at content marketing company Head Office:

“No matter which option you go for, communication in social media must come across as personal. There is definitely a reason why large companies such as Telenet and Belgacom have created a fictitious person to deal with their customers; Charlotte and Eva respectively. The conversation manager also has to know the company and its social media strategy very well. It may therefore be an advantage if someone in the company itself takes on that role. That person is right at the source and so can distribute information, take a quick picture and post it online, etc.

This task is not for everyone. A conversation manager must have experience with social media, have fluent communication and writing style and must be empathetic, positive and solution-oriented in his or her dealings with customers. Prior training is not a luxury, because the employee must be very aware of the company's content strategy. The audience is varied and unpredictable. You have to decide time and time again whether certain content is or is not suitable for your target group. It is also not a nine-to-five job: the online world keeps on turning even at night or at the weekend."

The advantage of hiring a conversation manager from an external company is that in principle the expertise is present. In that case the challenge is to know the company to such an extent that the customer has the impression that he or she is talking to a real employee.

Getting angry is out of the question

Traditional marketing and advertising are a one-way street. If they do not work, they are a waste of money. However, they are not likely to result in angry comments. A company venturing out on Facebook, Twitter or other social media, can be sure to receive comments and reactions. Including negative ones. Caroline Hombroukx:

“On social media the consumer is suddenly right next to you banging the table. It is important to respond well to that. Getting angry yourself is out of the question. You need to respond by showing that you understand and you are taking the question or complaint seriously. Everyone following the discussion must see that the company is providing a quick answer and is trying to find a solution. If a mistake has been made, you can acknowledge this openly and honestly. You can also show the problem as something positive: as an opportunity to improve your brand, product or service. Of course you must find a suitable solution in the end. If the person sharing the complaint becomes too negative, you have to try and divert him or her to a private channel: a private message on Facebook, a direct message on Twitter, an e-mail or a phone call."

An enthusiastic, understanding response also works well if the consumer is sharing something positive about your brand, company or service. Thanking the consumer strengthens the bond between the company and the customer. Caroline Hombroukx:

"The dialogue with the target group is an opportunity to improve your product or operations through constructive criticism. Make customers feel involved. It creates a strong relationship. If you are publishing a magazine or starting a poster campaign for instance, you can let customers choose the best layout or title from three options posted on Facebook, for example. Everything that engages customers can only strengthen their commitment."