A report published recently by Al-Riyadh newspaper said the banks receive more than 4,800 complaints ann-ually against computer banking fraud operations.

Saudi Arabia tops the Arab world in the number of customers using e-banking operations. According to experts more than 12 million customers make banking operations worth more than SR468 billion on the Internet annually. They said the figure was registered last year and it was the highest in the Arab world.

According to unconfirmed reports, electronic piracy in the banking system amounts to more than $1 billion in Arab countries. The experts said the level of computer piracy was increasing with the rapid technological progress.

In this connection, Talaat Hafiz, an expert on banking awareness, said the increasing use of e-banking operations has led Saudi banks to raise their awareness campaign to customers.

“Due to the flexibility provided by banking channels such as phones, ATMs, the Internet and credit cards, the risk of bank fraud is always there,” he said.

Hafiz said the customers responded positively to the awareness messages sent to them by the banks within their enlightening campaigns the latest of which was “conscience free”.

“The awareness of the customer is the shield against hacking,” he said.

Hafiz blamed negligence and not heeding precautions on the part of customers for the hacking operations to their bank accounts.

Saad Al-Sheikh, chief economist at the National Commercial Bank, said each bank has a special department to counter new methods being used for penetrating accounts. He said the banks have also established special media committees to organize awareness campaigns against banking fraud and hacking.