As international financial transactions are increasingly based on plastic rather than cash, the security of those using credit cards is being breached and fraud is on the rise. Saudi police recently arrested a group of people involved in fraudulent credit card transactions, a phenomenon which is common in western countries and in other parts of the world. Abu Faisal, an expatriate, became a victim of credit card fraud when he went to the UK recently for his vacation.
Upon his return to the Kingdom, he was shocked to receive a credit card bill for over SR15,000 for items purchased in the Philippines, Malaysia and Thailand, even though he has never visited those countries. Another credit card holder Sami Ahmed said that his bank has cancelled and replaced his Visa credit card three times already as someone in another country has tried to purchase items on the Internet using his credit card. Thamer K. Al-Mashari, manager of the credit card department at the Saudi British Bank, informed how such fraud can take place, and he said that fraudsters often obtain the card number through employees.