The distance between a bank and each of its customers is usually covered in a matter of seconds: it may be a call to the customer service center, the press of a button in the app, or a stop at a branch counter. In ordinary times, this relationship proceeds smoothly without us giving much thought to how it works. But when that distance becomes too great, it turns into a troubling gap between the moment a problem occurs and the moment it is resolved. This gap sometimes arises because a banking institution is slow to respond under the pressure of demand and the rapid pace of digital transformation, and at other times because the customer themselves does not know the correct official channels.
Whatever the reason, what Tahaqaq observes confirms one thing: this gap, and its expansion, is not merely empty space. It is the easiest opening for scammers to position themselves between a bank and its customer and speak on the bank’s behalf.
Fraud rings exploit very simple details, such as an app outage, app activation, a balance that has not appeared in an account, or any other issue they typically fabricate and then promote themselves as able to resolve.
When a citizen encounters such an issue and receives no prompt response or regular updates from the bank—or is unaware of the existence of a unified number or verified page—they act instinctively and turn to the place where they spend most of their time: social media platforms. They type the name of their bank into the search bar or post their problem in public groups, hoping for a quick answer. This behavior does not stem from recklessness or disregard for digital security, but from an urgent human need for a solution that coincides with a lack of information about where the official channels are.
This is precisely where the trap begins. Scammers constantly monitor these posts and public comments. They immediately appear under names and logos that exactly match those of bank accounts, using designs that suggest professionalism, a willingness to help, and an impersonation of the bank.
They present themselves as a “technical support or customer service team” and begin extracting data step by step under the pretext of “identity verification”—from card numbers and expiration dates to one-time security codes sent to the customer’s phone. They may even send a fake link that looks exactly like the bank’s app interface. In a moment of confusion and anxiety over their money, citizens’ scrutiny weakens in the face of a swift response that appears official, only for them to wake up afterward to a major financial and psychological loss.
The danger here is not limited to the amount stolen in each incident, but extends to the contagion it leaves behind. As long as this gap persists, people will increasingly turn to unsafe alternatives as fears and concerns take hold. With repeated incidents of theft and impersonation, trust erodes—not only in fake accounts, but in digital services as a whole. When customers become afraid of the screen in front of them, they take a step backward toward paper-based transactions and standing in branch queues, undermining years of efforts to modernize and develop the banking sector—a sector that must be protected and equipped with technologies to counter any exploitation of these services.
Our aim in examining this issue is not to assign blame to any particular party, but to close and narrow this gap from both sides. From the citizen’s perspective, one firm certainty must be established: no bank anywhere in the world will ask you for an OTP verification code, a password, or your full card details through a private conversation on Facebook or WhatsApp, no matter how convincing the page may appear.
From the banks’ perspective, investing in the capacity to handle customer inquiries through fast digital channels, alongside the daily pursuit and monitoring of fake pages, issuing warnings about them, and organizing the bank’s digital presence, has become a necessity rather than a regulatory luxury.
At Tahaqaq, we continue working to protect this space by providing tools for checking suspicious links, offering a directory of banks sourced from the Central Bank of Libya’s website, and publishing new methods of fraud as we identify them, while warning against them. But we always emphasize that these efforts are part of the solution, not a substitute for it. The closer a bank is to its customers and the more responsive it is to them, the more firmly the door is closed in the face of those waiting in the middle of the road.
