Useful tips for safe transactions

We offer you a high quality operating environment to carry out your transactions safely and reliably.

Below are some useful tips that will keep your transactions secure.

Secure your passwords and card:

• The Username (Customer Code) and Password (Secret Code) you use to log into e-banking and mobile banking are strictly personal.
• Choose a strong Password (Secret Code) and avoid auto-complete forms.
• Safeguarding passwords is your responsibility. If you detect or suspect theft or interception, you must notify CrediaBank immediately.
• Check daily that your card is in your possession and inform the Bank immediately of any unauthorized use by third parties.
• The PIN is strictly confidential and must not be known to anyone other than you. The PIN should never be kept with your card.
• Avoid using as your PIN personal details that can easily be seen by third parties (e.g. your or your family members’ year or date of birth) or using the same PIN for more than one card.
• When using your card at an ATM or POS, always cover the keypad when entering your PIN.
• Do not entrust the use of your card to a third party for any reason by giving them your PIN.
• CrediaBank will never ask you in any way (by phone or e-mail/sms) for your PINs.
• Misleading messages (phishing-mails) via e-mail and/or sms are intended to steal your personal data. These messages are supposed to have been sent by CrediaBank and prompt the recipient to go to a specific page in order to enter his/her personal details (e.g. Username, Password, etc.). Immediately delete any emails that prompt you to provide your personal information or login details to the Bank’s digital services, visit websites or open attachments.
• Phone calls (voice-phishing [Vishing]) from alleged Bank representatives are aimed at stealing your personal data (e.g. account number, customer code, VAT number, ID number, etc.) and should be ignored.

Protect your computer/mobile phone from malicious actions:

• Update your computer’s operating system and browsers or any applications with newer versions.
• Shield your computer and mobile with protection programs such as Firewall, Antivirus, Antispyware, which you should always have active and updated with the latest available version.
• Carry out your transactions from secure networks and websites.
• Avoid using computers in public places or using third party computers.
• Use the CrediaBank e-banking service only through the official CrediaBank websites (https://www.crediaabank.com  or directly at https://ebanking.crediabank.gr) and not through links contained in other websites (sites), search engines or e-mails.
• Restore your mobile phone to factory settings before transferring it to another person or recycling it.

To enhance your security, which is a permanent priority for us at CrediaBank, we would like to offer you ways to protect yourself.

Electronic fraud has many faces. You can learn to recognize them and also be trained to deal with them. There are many ways that fraudsters use to defraud, the most common of which are the following:

• CEO Fraud,
• Invoice Fraud,
• fraudulent phone calls (vishing), fraudulent SMS (smishing), fraudulent emails (phishing),
• spoofed bank websites,
• romance scam,
• personal data theft,
• investment scams,
• online shopping scams,
• alleged technical support scams,
• electronic telephone scams,
• identity theft, and
• SIM swapping scams

For more information you can also visit the website of the Hellenic Banking Federation, the website of Europol and read the press release of the European Banking Federation and the European Police Force with new advice against cyber fraud attempts.

As of January 2021, the “strong customer authentication” is launched at European and national level, in accordance with Directive (EU) 2015/2366 “on payment services in the internal market” (PSD 2) and Law 4537/2018 (Government Gazette A’ 84). The relevant procedure is necessary when a consumer carries out a payment card transaction in an e-commerce environment.

The strong customer authentication requirements are obligatory for all payment service providers (e.g. banks, payment institutions, e-money institutions, etc.), and were introduced in order to achieve maximum security in payment card (debit, credit and prepaid) customer transactions. Therefore, the member banks of the EBA, following the rules of the current legislation, do not accept and reject transactions that do not comply with the new security requirements. Rejected transactions are mainly due to the lack of adaptation of the e-commerce business and/or the failure of payment card holders to adopt the instructions of their co-operating bank in a timely manner.

What is strong customer identification?

Strong customer identification is a new set of rules that change the way consumers are identified when shopping in an e-commerce environment in order to further protect them from fraud. More specifically, ‘strong customer identification’ means the process of verifying the identity of the payment card holder using two (2) or more pieces of information:

• Knowledge (something only the user knows), such as a secret code or the answer to a memorizable question,
• possession (something only the user possesses), such as possession of an OTP SMS received or his mobile phone, and
• a unique physical (intrinsic) characteristic, such as his/her fingerprint.
  
  

Both these elements are required to be independent, in the sense that tampering with one does not compromise the trustworthiness of the others, and to be designed in such a way that the confidentiality of the identification data is protected.

For example, the issuer (e.g. a bank) of a payment card may use one of several ways to verify the execution of a payment transaction, such as a one-time password (OTP) via SMS/Viber text message combined with a code(s) known only to the customer (e.g. Web Banking codes), special mobile device app (for mobile phone, tablet), use of biometric data (e.g. fingerprint) of the customer in the bank’s mobile banking, etc.

The member banks of the Hellenic Banking Association have made the necessary changes in order to allow their consumer customers to be identified in a manner consistent with the new requirements of European and Greek legislation.