Penza, 4 November 2014. PenzaNews. The officials have registered a growth in fraud cases against the Sberbank card owners in the Penza region.

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As the press service of the regional department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs told PenzaNews agency, most of these cards had “Mobile bank” service activated.

“This feature is connected to a cellphone number given by the client, and this number receives client information via SMS. Apart from advertising, it may also contain confidential information, such as the Sberbank Online passwords. Unfortunately, due to recklessness of the bank clients and lack of relevant information campaigning from Sberbank’s part this information may be received and used by unwanted people,” the officials noted.

They also added that the fraud victims had their money transferred to other bank accounts and cellphone numbers. Blocking a card did not help the victims return the money.

“We have established that in each of these cases, the SIM cards connected to ‘Mobile bank’ service were given to other people or left unused for a long time which caused mobile providers to disconnect them and free the numbers. The bank clients did not inform the bank about this, and the online banking contracts were left unchanged. Therefore, fraudsters were able to conduct any operation with any of the banking accounts in question by obtaining the cellphone number used in ‘Mobile bank’ service,” the press office said.

The MIA officials advised the Penza region citizens using “Mobile bank” service from Sberbank to be vigilant.

“Always remember what cellphone numbers have you assigned to the service, keep your password secret and never give SIM cards to anybody else. If you lose the SIM card or do not use it anymore, go to Sberbank with this issue, since it is currently impossible to see if the number owner has changed and quickly turn off ‘Mobile bank’ services,” the police stressed.