Banks limit mobile top-up to check fraud

A raft of complaints by victims of recharge scams has led banks to limit the amount on online credit top up.

The recharge scams have become a common nuisance for phone users in the UAE, with many losing big money.

In an attempt to check the fraud, the operators and banks have now come up with security measures like limit on daily top up as well as one time passwords, XPRESS reported.

At least three banks operating in the UAE have reduced the amount of credit by which customers can recharge pre-paid phones. ADCB has reduced the maximum top-up amount using the phone banking system from Dh10,000 to Dh200. Citibank has set the phone-banking phone credit recharge limit at Dh250.

Emirates NBD also confirmed reducing the pre-paid phone recharge amount through its interactive voice response (IVR) system to Dh500.

Abdul Elah Al Kindi, General Manager, Retail Banking, Emirates NBD, said: "The maximum amount for pre-paid phone credit through Emirates NBD is Dh500 per transaction. In addition, we have also introduced a per-day limit."

A Dh10,000 per-day limit for all utility payments has been adopted, he said, adding: "We continue to have ongoing enhancements to these security measures."

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