And Duncan also took the time to give us some background on phishing crimes across banks going back several years:
Stephen Duncan, Managing Director, Heritage Bank
"I think we need to first see that it happens in waves. So I bought prior to COVID, there was a wave and there was a wave not only in terms of online banking, but there was a wave in terms of ATM. And many of you will recall that the bank was able to successfully get the police to pick up two foreigners who were going around again, doing the same thing, stealing the credentials of customers because they cannot help the bank system. So they steal your credentials. They find a very creative and innovative way to do it and then they use that to get in so that the banking system will see it as if you are the one getting in because it's a sea of credentials that you had pre-arranged with your bank. So the minute you give out that pre-arranged password and pin. The bank can't then detect against that because they think it's you getting in."
"I don't want to underestimate the people who are doing it. They are not idiots. This is not being done. The fraudsters are not idiots. They are very shrewd and cunning and so they are able to word things and culture, and their language in a way which triggers a certain emotion from the reader. And it gives you that sense of urgency. I have to do this now. And that's what they tricked everybody with."
