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Security centre
Most fraud does not defeat the bank’s systems; it persuades the customer. These are the five approaches we see most, and the one detail that gives each away.
Each has a single warning sign that does not change, however polished the presentation.
A caller claims to be ICB’s fraud team, says your account is under attack, and asks you to move money to a “safe account” or read out a code.
The tell: We never ask you to move money, and we never ask for a code. The urgency is the tell — a real fraud team slows things down, it does not hurry you.
A message about a missed parcel or an unpaid fee links to a page that harvests your card details, which are then used online.
The tell: The link is the payload. Weigh the fee being asked for — a few cedis to release a parcel — against how rarely any legitimate delivery works that way.
Goods at a price too good to be real, paid by transfer to a “seller” who then disappears. Transfers are final in a way card payments are not.
The tell: A seller who refuses a card payment or an escrow and insists on a direct transfer is telling you how they intend to be untraceable.
An unsolicited approach — often through social media — offers guaranteed returns, shows a convincing dashboard, and encourages larger and larger deposits.
The tell: Guaranteed high returns do not exist. A dashboard that only ever goes up, and a withdrawal that always has one more fee before it, is the pattern.
A relationship built over weeks turns to an emergency — medical, customs, travel — that only your transfer can solve.
The tell: The emergency is always urgent, always untraceable, and always followed by another. Anyone you have not met who asks for money is a risk, full stop.
Speed matters more than embarrassment. Most losses are limited by what happens in the first ten minutes, and nobody at ICB will make you feel foolish — we would rather hear about a near miss than not hear about a loss.
Your dispute is picked up by a named case owner, not a queue. You are told what evidence we hold, what the card scheme’s deadline is, and the reason for the outcome — upheld or not. If the money moved to another bank, we raise a recall the same day and tell you what the receiving bank said.
Reporting a scam attempt that failed is just as useful. The number, the message and the approach go into the rule engine and protect the next customer it targets.