Banks say hackers to fail with fakes

• Source: Global Times
• [11:05 June 30 2010]
• Comments

By Ni Dandan

Local banks assure that strict security is in place to prevent fraudulent activity from criminals posing as account holders by using duplicates of Chinese identification cards.

The concerns come after a software program allowing individuals to create copies of the ID cards has grown in popularity following an individual who used it to make a fake for US President Barack Obama.

"We know about this software, and we are further strengthening our security in this aspect," a credit risk officer surnamed Xu, at the Bank of Communications, told the Global Times Tuesday.

Xu said that the bank is making it a point to verify the identity of account holders who present ID copies instead of their original cards by cross-referencing the related personal information with the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Public Security for banking matters.

He added that on a case-by-case basis the bank may also cooperate with other local banks to see whether fraudulent activity has been reported, and additional personnel will be assigned to monitor any accounts in question.

The software program, which has been the recent topic of many online jokes after other IDs for a number of celebrities have been produced, can be downloaded without charge from greenxf.com, a Zhejiang-based website that provides various free downloads.

Users can make the ID replicas simply by uploading a photo and entering a name, gender, nationality, birth date, address and ID card number.

Though the website says that the program is intended to help in "emergency situations" only, the simplicity of it all has some worrying their bank accounts might be hacked.

"It will certainly make things easier for scammers," a local teacher surnamed Yang told the Global Times Tuesday. "I recently applied for a credit card at China Merchants Bank, and was told that it would be okay not to bring my ID card so long as I had a copy of it to show."

China Merchants Bank confirmed to the Global Times Tuesday that patrons are not required to bring their original ID cards to the bank.

According to Yang Jizhou, manager of the credit card center at China Merchant Bank, few individuals have outsmarted the identification process - which requires additional documents including proof of employment from an employer - but all were caught shortly afterwards.