Most UAE residents will remember the scores of consumers who were hit by card frauds, including ATM frauds, in the recent months.

Here is a report on a survey conducted on the subject which revealed that 73% of Dubai consumers worried about card fraud.

Seven percent of consumers in Dubai had been the victim of bank card fraud in the past five years, according to the results of a survey released on Tuesday.

Dubai was found to have a low rate of card fraud compared to the US and UK, where 27 percent of respondents to the survey had been hit by card fraud, and Australia, China and Singapore, where 15 percent had been affected, the research by ACI Worldwide found.

However, Dubai consumers affected by fraud were found to be among the most unforgiving of their banks in the international survey, with 35 percent of respondents saying they were very unhappy with the treatment from their bank following an incident.

Thirty six percent of respondents said they would change their financial institution or credit card company following a card fraud, with 38 percent saying they would opt to use cash over card following a card fraud incident.

A total of seventy three percent of Dubai respondents said they were somewhat more worried about being a victim of card fraud during the economic slowdown.

More than 2,400 consumers across seven countries and the emirate of Dubai were surveyed by US electronic payment security firm ACI for the research. Around 10 percent of those surveyed were from Dubai.

Source Courtesy: As reported by Tom Arnold at http://www.arabianbusiness.com/563176-73-of-dubai-consumers-worried-about-card-fraud

Bahrain residents will soon enjoy the comfort of paying their utility bills from their mobile phones. This is the latest among the series of eGovernment initiatives.

The services, reportedly, will be launched by the beginning of September 2009.

“We will launch the service before the end of August,” Mohamed Ali Al Qaed, CEO of Bahrain’s eGovernment Authority (eGA), told Arabian Business in an interview. “We wanted to make sure that we had the right security in place before we allowed people to pay on their mobiles,” he continued. “Now we have a new model that will be totally secure.”

Apart from utilities bill payment, mobile users will be granted 23 other services before the end of August including detailed searches for hotels and restaurants, Daily Price Index etc. The eGA already offers customers 17 services on their mobile phones, including real-time flight arrival and departure information, specialist medical services searches, and postal tracking.

Bahrain’s eGovernment initiatives have attracted widespread acclaim, and the UN recently selected Al Qaed to represent Arab countries and West Asia on the Strategic Council for Global Alliance for ICT and Development (GAID), part of the United Nations Dept. for Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA). It is notable that Al Qaed is the first Gulf national to hold such a position.

Source Courtesy: http://www.itp.net/news/561494-bahrain-set-to-launch-bill-payments-by-mobile-phone#continueArticle