According to Davron Abdullayev, deputy head of the Cyber Security Center of the Central Bank of Uzbekistan, more than two thousand cybercrimes were committed in the republic in the first quarter of 2024.
The bank expert said that one of the main reasons for the increase in cybercrimes was the lack of financial literacy among people.
"Currently, we are focusing on improving the financial literacy of the population. Because when fraudsters make phone calls and say that they work at the Central Bank, people still believe that "the Bank deals with personal loans. Then they openly reveal the card PIN codes. I assure you the Central Bank of Uzbekistan does not work with the public directly, it is not part of the Bank’s activities. The Bank works with commercial banks and organizations. It gives recommendations and instructions," Abdullayev said.
The representative of the Central Bank said that almost all cyber frauds in Uzbekistan were carried out from abroad.
There are many cases of misappropriation of a defrauded citizen's bank card information. The regulator asked citizens not to pay attention to such messages and not to give bank card information to third parties.
According to experts, if the financial literacy of the population increases, such cases of fraud will decrease. Otherwise, it may be difficult to solve the problem. "The fraudsters are predominantly Russians. They do not know Uzbek and introduce themselves in Russian saying "I am from the Central Bank". Our people should doubt their Uzbek language speaking inability who are mainly from abroad.
The software program called "Number Change" makes it possible to call from abroad using the mobile number of Uzbekistan. If you decide to call back the number again after the conversation, you will be connected to a completely different person. People are often deceived by this," Davron Abdullayev said.
The scammers offer online loans on a fake Telegram channel "Markaziy_Banki_uz".
There are many cases of misappropriation of a defrauded citizen's bank card information. The regulator asks everyone to be vigilant and not to disclose bank card information to third parties.
According to experts, such cases may decrease only by increasing the financial literacy of internet users.