How to change the phone number in the bank?You won't do it over the internet anymore

Banks one by one withdraw the option to change telephone number via the Internet banking system. A reaction to the guidelines of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority, which declared war on identity thieves. The telephone number used to receive SMS codes can be changed after thorough verification at the hotline or at a bank branch.

For several years, banks have been struggling with the problem of identity theft of their customers. We have already written about it many times on Bankier.pl. Criminals use various manipulation techniques to extort personal data and then use it to open bank accounts. Such accounts are later resold on the secondary market and are used by buyers for all sorts of shady deals. They are used to extort loans, accept payments for fictitious online auctions, hide income from the tax office or even money laundering.

At the beginning of the year, I wrote about the new security recommendations that the Polish Financial Supervision Authority issued to banks. One of the points contained therein concerns the possibility of changing the mobile phone number used to receive SMS codes via the internet banking system. Well, the analysis carried out by the KNF showed that criminals are most likely to use the customers of those banks where you can change the phone number via the online banking system.

Banks should monitor phone number changes

Phone number is necessary to authorize instructions using SMS passwords. Thieves, after phishing data and setting up an account on a pole, first try to change the phone number so that the client does not receive notifications about operations on the account. For obvious reasons, this would arouse his suspicions and lead to the blocking of the cloned account.

The supervision therefore recommended banks to introduce mechanisms to monitor any changes to the phone number used to authorize transactions. They should also take effective measures to verify the compliance of the telephone number owner's data with the data of the person setting up the account.

Phone number you will not change online

The survey I conducted in banks shows that most banks have complied with the recommendations of the Polish Financial Supervision Authority. Customers of PKO Bank Polski, Bank Zachodni WBK, mBank, Millennium, Credit Agricole, Bank Pocztowy, Getin Bank, Citi Handlowy, RaiffeisenPolbank or PlusBank will no longer be able to change their phone number online. Customers of these banks can change the number only on the hotline or at the bank's branch.

Some banks still allow you to change your number online, but the process is carefully monitored. This is the case, for example, at Bank Pekao. - If, in addition to entering the authorization code, e.g. additional verification of the instruction is needed, the Contact Center is contactedto the phone number that is currently provided in the bank, i.e. to the old number – explains Tomasz Bogusławski from the Pekao press office. - If contact with the client is not possible (e.g. lost phone), the operation can only be performed at the facility. Changing the phone used for SMS authorization requires entering the code sent to the current number. This gives us confidence that the instruction is ordered by a person who is in possession of a given - old telephone number - he adds.

The new rules will make life harder for... honest customers

The new rules will certainly make it harder for identity thieves, but they won't eliminate the trading of fraudulent accounts. Traders are already adding prepaid cards with numbers registered to receive SMS codes to their advertisements. However, honest customers of banks may have a problem, as if they need to change their number, they will have to undergo a thorough verification at the hotline, and in extreme cases go to a branch. This can be inconvenient, especially in the face of market changes and the shrinking network of bank branches.

It is worth recalling that this is not the first recommendation of the KNF aimed at limiting trading in accounts. Already last year, banks were forced to limit the possibility of opening accounts using the so-called verification transfers. This method was commonly used by fraudsters to clone bank accounts. Currently, only a few institutions offer it. Honest bank customers have been deprived of one of the most convenient methods of opening bank accounts. People who want to set up an account remotely can do it via couriers. However, this process takes a bit longer than in the case of an account set up by bank transfer.

Expert in the field of banking. Author of comments, guides, articles and reports on banking addressed to both the industry and its clients. Managing editor of the PRNews.pl industry website. Author of the series of reports "Polish banking in numbers". Journalist of the Year 2013 according to the Jury of the Competition of the 9th Electronic Economy Congress at the Polish Bank Association. Twice nominated for the Journalism Award. Marian Krzak and the winner of this award in 2014. Finalist of the Press Club Polska Economic Journalism Award for 2019.