Doha: The Qatar International Islamic Bank (QIIB) has informed its customers that they will not be able to shop on the Internet using debit cards anymore. Several other banks this newspaper spoke to yesterday said they had no plans to enforce such a rule yet.
QIIB said in a message to its customers on Tuesday: “Following the directives of Qatar Central Bank, using Debit Cards for purchases via the Internet (e-Commerce) is now stopped.”
Some banks said that they had not yet received any such directives from the QCB. In a recent circular issued to all banks, the QCB had only asked them to proactively check their transactions and take precautionary measures against frauds.
Banking sources revealed that counterfeit transactions via the Internet had increased in recent months. They said that some of these online transactions had originated from the US, while people had also started bringing over fake ATM cards to Qatar from countries such as China.
“E-commerce channels were affected recently in a hacking incident. Although no losses were reported, the banks and businesses have become more vigilant now,” an official from a bank, who did not want to be quoted, said.
Officials also said that a majority of people here preferred to use debit cards for e-Commerce, which included payment of bills and purchasing airline tickets on the Internet among other things, and many did not even own credit cards.
Asked about the difference in Internet banking using debit and credit card, one financial expert said that there was essentially no difference between the two.
“Both are plastic. When you use debit card, you withdraw money directly from your account. With the credit card, it simply means you are using the bank’s money as a loan.”
He said that it was easy to steal personal and financial information on the Internet.
“It depends on the kind of firewall the merchant or website you are doing business with is using.”
He, however, noted that if the debit card number gets stolen, a person’s entire bank account becomes vulnerable, which is why people are always encouraged to use credit cards for e-Commerce.
The Peninsula
