A number of customers of Banka Kombëtare Tregtare have been faced with an unpleasant surprise, as their cards have been mysteriously emptied. Kapitali identified a number of cases where the cards turned out to have been used in different countries.
In one case, a citizen's card turned out to have been used in Bulgaria to make purchases for a considerable amount of thousands of euros. In another case, the money was taken in Italy, and so on. After this information, Kapital officially contacted BKT to find out what had happened.
The bank admitted that the cards were cloned from an ATM in Tirana, where the perpetrators of the theft had installed a camera. BKT says that this phenomenon lasted only an hour and then the security breach was detected by its staff, so according to the bank, the number of cards that were cloned is small. Meanwhile, BKT also announces that citizens who fell victim to the theft will be fully reimbursed.
Capital was unable to independently verify the extent of the phenomenon. But the fact that it was able to identify several cases within a short time indicates that the phenomenon may be larger than the bank itself admits.
However, beyond the size, the security breach at the country's largest bank is a concern, which once again raises the need for massive investments in cybersecurity by the banking sector, especially in the era of digitalization.
Editorial
