A.Stop sending money straight away. If the payment has been set up as a Direct Debit, get in touch with your bank to stop this immediately.

B.Report the scam or fraud to the authorities which can be the fiscal police, your financial institution, the Registrar of Financial Institutions, or the Anti-corruption bureau.

C.Beware of follow-up scams. Sometimes after reporting a scam you might get targeted again by a fraudster who says they can get your money back.

C.Don’t make any advanced payments until you are sure the company you’re dealing with is legitimate.

D.If you’re unsure about a financial services company, contact the Reserve Bank of Malawi to see if the institution is licensed and regulated. If they have informed you otherwise, then do not conduct any transaction with them.

B.Never send Money to a stranger or someone you do not know. Once you wire cash, especially overseas, it’s virtually impossible to reverse the transaction or trace the money.

C.Use Tough-To-Crack Passwords. You have to create passwords that are at least eight characters long and that include some lower and upper-case letters, numbers and special characters. Further, don’t use the same password for multiple accounts and change them regularly.

a.Never reveal sensitive financial information to a person or business you don’t know, whether they reach out to you via phone, text or email. These fraudsters usually claim to be from your bank or any other financial institution telling you that your account has been compromised or needs to be updated. Remember, no legitimate financial institution will ask its customers of sensitive financial information.

C.Personal details, PIN codes and passwords are things that no legitimate financial institution or service provider will ask you for.

D.Quick decisions. If you are pushed into deciding on the spot, be suspicious. Fraudsters don’t want you to have time to think about it.

E.Random competitions, particularly if you don’t remember entering them, should ring alarm bells.

AUnsolicited or unexpected contact. If you have received any kind of contact, particularly a phone call, out of the blue, claiming to be from a financial institution, it is best to avoid it. This means you should not be contacted by any financial institution about your money unless you’ve asked them to.

B.If a deal sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Most fraudsters guarantee huge returns with unrealistic low risk.

D. Mandate fraud

It could potentially be harder to spot as the payments would not be unusual at first glance, and it may be a few weeks or months before the organization who should be receiving the money gets in touch.

D. Mandate fraud

• In this case, the new bank details would belong to the criminals, rather than the genuine organization.
• The same scam could be carried out by email and text message, and could even involve fraudsters hacking into a bank account to change direct debit details.

D. Mandate fraud

• If you use direct debits or standing orders, fraudsters might try to pose as the organization you are making payments to, in order to redirect the money to their own accounts.
• This could be done through post by sending a fake letter to an individual, informing them that the direct debit payment details need to be updated.

C. Application fraud and misuse of facility

• Similarly, misuse of facility is when someone opens an account with the intention of using it for fraudulent purposes.

C. Application fraud and misuse of facility

• Application fraud is usually defined as when an individual uses their own name to apply for a financial product, but uses false information or counterfeit documents in the application.
• For example, someone might supply fake pay slips in their mortgage application to indicate that they earn more than they actually do

b. Facility takeover

• However, facility takeover can often be detected by keeping a close eye on your account activity and investigating any unusual purchases with your bank or card issuer.
• Also, your bank’s dedicated fraud team should also be looking for any signs of unusual activity and may even suspend your account if they suspect fraud is taking place.

b.Facility takeover

• This is when an existing financial service, such as a bank account or credit card, is taken over by a fraudster using stolen information to pose as the account holder.
• This could be achieved in a variety of ways such as intercepting a PIN code, resetting a password using security questions or by stealing a credit or debit card.

a)    Identity theft and fraud

• Identity fraud may also involve guessing a password, stealing old papers from a recycling bin or searching for personal information on social media networks.

a.Identity theft and fraud

• This is when a person steals personal details about someone living or dead and uses it by impersonating the stolen information to obtain financial services or access existing accounts.
• The stolen information may include; bank account number, email account password or copies of their utility bills etc.

a.The Registrar of Financial Institutions, who is also the Governor of Reserve Bank of Malawi, is mandated under the Financial Services Act 2010 and other financial services laws to empower and protect all financial consumers by detecting any fraudulent financial transactions/schemes happening in the financial industry and the society at large.

b.it is also responsible for bringing awareness of the detected fraudulent transactions/schemes to the public

1. Financial fraud is an intentional act of deception conducted by a fraudster and involving a financial transaction or scheme for purposes of personal gain.
2. it refers to any attempt to deceive another person for financial gain. 

PERIOD(21-30 working days):complaints requiring extensive investigations

PERIOD(31 – 60 days):Complex complaints

d.All complaints against unlicensed or unregistered institutions such as village banks and Katapila (loan sharks)

e.In addition to the above, the Registrar does not have the mandate to determine compensation for loss or damages.

1. All complaints that are being heard in a Court of Law
2. All complaints that are criminal in nature i.e. relate to financial fraud
3. All complaints that do not involve a breach of any financial services law.

The Registrar handles complaints against licensed or registered financial service providers only. 

Any individual or small and medium enterprise (SME) whose complaint against a financial service provider has not been satisfactorily resolved by the concerned financial service provider.  Note that complainants must have lodged their concerns with their financial service provider’s a before lodging a complaint with the Registrar.

1. By phone: 01 820 299/ 01 820 444 (Switchboard)
2. By email: complaints-handling@rbm.mw
3. Visit (walk-ins) the Reserve Bank’s Branches (Blantyre, Lilongwe or Mzuzu
4. By postal mail:The Consumer Protection and Financial Literacy Unit, Reserve Bank of Malawi, 10 Hannover Avenue,P. O. Box 565,BLANTYRE

a. Firstly, communicate the problem or concern to your financial service provider’s branch or service centre. If the issue has not been resolved to your satisfaction, find out what to do next with your financial service provider.If still unsatisfied with the resolution by your financial service provider, escalate your complaint to the Registrar of Financial Institutions (Reserve Bank) for mediation

It is an expression of dissatisfaction or concern with the conduct of a financial institution or performance of the financial service or product that you acquired from a financial institution such as a bank, capital market player, pension entity, insurance company, microfinance institution, mobile money provider or a SACCO

Complaints are resolved within the following periods:

PERIOD(0-10 working days): Simple and straightforward complaints can be resolved immediately or within 10 days.

PERIOD(11-20 working days):Require time to investigate and can be resolved within 20 days.

Data Consumer is aware of :

• Data given by the consumer in order to use a specific service such as data aggregation tools
• Data collected when consumers are using specific financial products such as payment services

1. Consumer is not aware of :

• Data collected by the provider during customer interactions
• Data collected by the provider on publicly available information (social media)
• Data shared with the provider by a third party such as credit reference bureau

For Banking Services:

1. Your bank account details such as account number, account name branch and bank.
2. Your Auto Teller Machine (ATM) Personal Identification Number (PIN), even to relations

1. Your ATM Card Number and CVV Number on the reverse side (This is the three digit number at the back of your ATM Card
2. Your mobile application login credentials
3. Your internet banking login credentials
4. Any One Time Passwords you receive on your phone

a. Do not share you PIN with any person or agent

b. Any One Time Passwords you receive on your phone 

Note:  Banks do not ask you for personal information over the phone, they request you to visit your branch, do not fall prey to fraudsters’ tricks!

1. The right for consumers to be informed:  Institutions need to disclose the purposes for which the data may be collected, processed, held, used, how long it will be kept and whether it will be shared with any third parties.
2. The right to access personal data

3. The right to obtain the prompt correction and/or deletion of inaccurate, or unlawfully collected or processed data.

iii. Right to consent and authorization:  Any provider wishing to access your financial information must ask for consent/authorization. Consumers should not feel coerced into granting access to sensitive personal information, such as past bank statements, unless they are aware of this and understand the implications.

1. any information relating to an identified or identifiable individual (data subject) (OECD, 2013)
2. “any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living individual” and stresses that “different pieces of information, which collected together can lead to the identification of a particular person, also constitute personal data” (EU, 2016)