In the face of a wave of high-tech fraud, the banking industry is strengthening its defenses, promoting the construction of a "common shield" to protect people's digital trust.
When AI becomes a tool for criminals
The rapid development of digital banking has brought many benefits to people and businesses. But along with the pace of digitalization, online fraud has also increased in both scale and sophistication.
Deputy Minister of Public Security Pham The Tung stated that the digital transformation of the banking sector is progressing rapidly, opening up many opportunities for breakthrough growth. However, in the AI era, the issue of trust is facing new challenges. Fraudulent methods of asset appropriation are becoming increasingly sophisticated and organized, and the support of AI has created "false trusts" that are very difficult to distinguish.
Sharing the same view, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung stated that AI is opening up enormous opportunities for the banking industry. This technology helps improve operational efficiency, automate processes, personalize services, credit scoring, customer care, detect unusual transactions, and prevent fraud and money laundering. However, AI also brings with it a series of new risks such as deepfakes, identity spoofing, personalized scams, algorithmic bias, and the risk of automating decisions that have a significant impact on customers but lack appropriate control.
According to Deputy Governor Pham Tien Dung, in the banking sector, risks lie not only in the technology system but also in user behavior, personal data, transaction flows, and the potential for criminals to exploit people's trust to commit fraud. “We cannot just protect the system, but must protect the users as well; we cannot just defend individual organizations, but must form a common shield for the entire ecosystem; we cannot just deal with risks after they occur, but must shift to early detection, early warning, early prevention, and coordinated rapid response,” Mr. Pham Tien Dung stated.
We cannot simply protect the system, but must protect the users as well; we cannot just defend individual organizations, but must form a common shield for the entire ecosystem; we cannot just deal with risks after they occur, but must shift to early detection, early warning, early prevention, and coordinated rapid response.
The reality is that forms of fraud are constantly evolving. According to warnings from many commercial banks, the emergence of AI voice technology and deepfake technology is taking financial fraud to a new level. With just a short audio recording collected from social media, current AI tools can recreate voices almost perfectly. When combined with technology that spoofs phone numbers displayed on screens, perpetrators can make victims believe they are speaking to relatives, bank employees, or government officials.
Besides making fraudulent calls, many perpetrators also instruct customers to install fake applications impersonating government agencies or banks in order to remotely take control of their phones.
According to the Vietnam Agricultural and Rural Development Bank (Agribank), after users install fake applications, perpetrators can take control of the phone, obtain OTP codes, and carry out money transfer transactions.
Bac A Commercial Joint Stock Bank ( Bac A Bank ) also warned about a series of new scams such as fake bank-branded text messages, impersonating bank employees to handle faulty transactions, impersonating relatives on social media to borrow money, or impersonating network providers to support SIM upgrades in order to gain control of phone numbers receiving OTPs…
Building a "common shield" to protect customers.
Faced with increasingly sophisticated scams, the banking industry is stepping up various solutions to protect customers and strengthen digital trust. One of the key approaches is enhancing authentication and security layers.
Faced with increasingly sophisticated scams, the banking industry is stepping up various solutions to protect customers and strengthen digital trust. One of the key approaches is enhancing authentication and security layers.
According to a representative from Southeast Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (SeABank), the bank has recently launched a "Security Key for Online Deposits" feature, creating an additional layer of protection for customers' digital assets. When this feature is activated, each online deposit is linked to a unique security key, which is mandatory for withdrawals or account closures. Even without the security key, deposits remain protected in the event of unauthorized access. Combined with biometric authentication, this solution forms a multi-layered security mechanism to mitigate the risk of account breaches.
Besides strengthening layers of protection at each bank, the banking industry is promoting the formation of an interconnected defense mechanism across the entire system. Recently, Asia Commercial Bank (ACB) implemented a mechanism to alert about accounts and cards receiving money that show signs of suspected fraud based on data cross-referencing from the SIMO system.
According to ACB, depending on the level of suspicion, the system will issue different levels of warnings. In high-risk cases, transactions may be automatically blocked to protect customers. Nam A Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Nam A Bank) also implements a service to check the status of payment accounts and e-wallets suspected of fraud through the SIMO system.
According to Nguyen Hung, General Director of Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank), the convenience of digital banking always comes with negative consequences in terms of fraud and scams. Currently, TPBank processes approximately 5-7 million transactions per day. AI helps banks increase productivity, reduce costs, and establish risk warnings, but at the same time, it has become a tool to "support" criminals. Through data analysis, TPBank found that most fraudulent funds only take about 40-45 seconds to be transferred to another account. In just a few minutes, the money can pass through dozens of banks before being converted into digital currency or withdrawn as cash.
Along with the convenience of digital banking come the potential for fraud and scams. Currently, TPBank processes approximately 5-7 million transactions per day. AI helps banks increase productivity, reduce costs, and establish risk alerts, but it also becomes a tool to "assist" criminals. Through data analysis, TPBank found that most fraudulent funds take only about 40-45 seconds to be transferred to another account. In just a few minutes, the money can pass through dozens of banks before being converted into digital currency or withdrawn as cash.
This reality shows that combating fraud is no longer the sole responsibility of individual banks but requires coordinated efforts among relevant agencies. According to Colonel Hoang Ngoc Bach, Head of Department 4, Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control Bureau (A05), the information exchange process between the banking sector and the police is currently slow, potentially taking from several days to several months, while fraudulent funds can be "dispersed" through multiple layers of accounts in just a few hours.
Therefore, it is necessary to shift from an administrative coordination model to a "digital warfare" model based on the principle of "prevention first - verification later," aiming for a 24/7 operational mechanism to handle fraud cases in real time.
In the context of AI profoundly transforming financial and banking operations, experts agree that technology is only part of the solution. Alongside early warning systems, multi-factor authentication, and monitoring of unusual transactions, users are the target of protection but also the first line of defense.
In the fight against high-tech fraud, a "common shield" built from technology, data, institutions, and public awareness is becoming an urgent requirement to protect digital trust in the digital economy.
Source: https://nhandan.vn/chong-lua-dao-ai-trong-nganh-ngan-hang-post971296.html
