Regulatory Alerts2025-01-01
Circular No. 30 (2025) – Payment Style and Pattern in Electronic Financial Fraud
The Palestine Monetary Authority issued Circular No. 30 (2025) to address a newly identified electronic financial fraud pattern involving impersonated bank and payment staff soliciting customer data via social media calls and messages. The directive mandates that payment service companies link transaction authentication to unique, per-transaction One-Time Password (OTP) codes rather than accepting previously validated ones, while establishing financial ceilings for prepaid mobile top-ups and digital purchases. Furthermore, institutions must implement continuous monitoring scenarios to detect recurring fraud patterns and distinguish between natural and legal customers in compliance with existing regulations.
Palestine Monetary Authority
Circular No. (30/2025) To all payment service companies operating in Palestine Date: Tuesday, December 02, 2025
Subject: Style and Pattern Used in Electronic Financial Fraud
The Palestine Monetary Authority urges electronic payment service companies to exercise caution regarding a recently observed fraudulent style and pattern, based on cases of electronic financial fraud experienced by some citizens, which is summarized as follows:
- Citizens receiving calls and/or messages via communication and social media platforms from individuals impersonating employees of financial institutions such as banks and electronic payment companies, aiming to defraud citizens and obtain their data through deception and the promise of winning financial prizes, activating applications, or obtaining bank cards or electronic watches, etc.
- Fraudsters exploiting citizens' data and some systems accepting the posting of financial transactions on customer accounts by relying on previously accepted One-Time Password (OTP) codes instead of linking the authentication for accepting such transactions to a unique OTP assigned to each transaction, which resulted in multiple and repeated mobile balance top-ups (prepaid) on a single day favoring Palestinian mobile numbers, either with the same value or different amounts.
And with the aim of limiting the misuse of bill presentation and payment system services in processing transactions related to electronic financial fraud, and to prevent citizens from falling victim to fraud and losing their money, the Palestine Monetary Authority confirms the necessity of taking necessary measures and controls to limit risks, which include:
- Linking the acceptance of executing financial transactions to the specific One-Time Password (OTP) for each transaction, and not allowing new financial transactions to be processed by relying on previously accepted verification codes.
- Establishing financial ceilings for processing prepaid transactions on the system; specifically mobile balance top-ups and digital product purchases, with ceilings proportional to the nature of services and distinguishing between natural and legal customers in accordance with Article (8) of Circular No. (2) of 2024.
- Providing scenarios on continuous monitoring systems to detect any similar electronic fraud transactions based on observed patterns and cases.
Supervisory Group Palestine Monetary Authority
www.pma.ps P.O. Box 452, Ramallah and Al-Bireh Governorate - Palestine Postal Code: P6160675 | Phone: +970 2415251 | Fax: +970 2415310 | info@pma.ps