RIYADH: Saudi financial specialists will be trained to identify online fraudsters thanks to a new initiative from the Kingdom’s central bank, also known as SAMA. The institution has announced the launch of the first edition of the Cyber Anti-Fraud Program, according to a statement. The training will span three months and teach specialized skills to a team drawn from SAMA and local banks. The SAMA statement said the program will include comprehensive and intensive cyber fraud education and on-the-field training. CAFP is known to adopt the best international standards and practices in the cyber fraud training field. The program is designed in collaboration with a British university and renowned global entities specializing in cyber fraud detection and prevention. The situation in Saudi Arabia is no different from the rest of the world in terms of cybersecurity, especially since the Kingdom is shifting to digital financial transactions and payments as the main objective of the Financial Sector Development Program. In August 2022, SAMA urged banks operating in the Kingdom to implement preventive measures to protect clients from financial fraud. The move comes under the Banking Control Law, which aims to support the banking sector’s stability and enhance customer confidence. The central bank implemented such measures in light of the increase in fraudulent websites and social media accounts and the continued financial fraud cases that target bank customers in various ways. “There’s been a persistent recurrence of financial fraud incidents such as social engineering scams, in which consumers are being deceived to believe that they are dealing with official and trusted bodies, and end up revealing their financial data,” the bank said then. Accordingly, SAMA took urgent and temporary measures to suspend some services, such as opening accounts online and setting limits for the daily transfers of individuals and individual institutions at a maximum of SR60,000 ($15,995). However, customers are allowed to request raising this limit from the bank. SAMA urged customers to take precautions against such frauds and not to disclose their banking or personal data while ensuring the reliability of the websites they deal with.