YES Bank restricts certain overseas e-commerce transactions after fraud attempts on prepaid forex cards

YES Bank said it has taken additional security measures after detecting an unusual spike in transaction declines on certain Multi-Currency Prepaid Forex Cards issued in partnership with BookMyForex.

In a regulatory filing to the Stock Exchange of India and BSE under SEBI’s Listing Regulations, the bank said its fraud monitoring systems flagged a rise in declined transactions linked to specific Bank Identification Numbers (BINs).

According to the bank, the unauthorised transactions were attempted at 15 merchants based in a Latin American country during the early hours of February 24, between 3:30 am and 8:30 am IST. The country in question does not mandate two-factor authentication for e-commerce transactions.

As a precautionary step, YES Bank said it has restricted e-commerce transactions originating from the identified country.

The bank’s internal investigation found that during the incident window, transactions worth approximately $0.28 million were approved across around 5,000 customers. At the same time, its monitoring and control systems declined 688 unauthorised transaction attempts, preventing transactions worth about $0.1 million.

The lender said it is working with the relevant card network to initiate chargebacks to ensure that affected customers do not incur any financial loss.

YES Bank said it continues to monitor the situation closely and is coordinating with stakeholders to safeguard customer interests.

Meanwhile, shares of YES Bank were trading at ₹20.71, down ₹0.03 or 0.14%, in the pre-open session on February 26. The indicative pre-open quantity stood at 16,770 shares.