كيف تسبّبت «ساعة مجانية» في تبخّر ثروة رجل أعمال مصري؟

The dream of receiving a "free gift" turned into a terrifying financial nightmare that shook the banking sector, after a single click on a phone screen stripped an Egyptian businessman of a massive bank deposit amounting to 750 million pounds, making him a victim of one of the most complex traps of "real-time phishing" witnessed in the region recently.

The biggest shock in the case (as revealed by a banking official) is that the bank's systems were never hacked; rather, the victim willingly handed over the final key to his wealth to the fraudsters!

Interestingly, the journey of wealth loss began with a highly professional promotional announcement on social media platforms, promising customers of a bank a "free smart watch."

Once the link was clicked, the victim was redirected to a page designed by artificial intelligence that perfectly matched the official bank's website in colors and logos, making it impossible for an untrained person to detect the trick.

“Real-time Phishing”... theft occurs before the victim's eyes

In press statements, information systems consultant Dr. Mohamed Askar explained that the fraudsters used a malicious method known as "real-time phishing," where the scheme unfolds as follows:

• The fake site is directly linked in real-time to the bank's actual system.
• When the businessman entered his username and password, the system sent a one-time verification code (OTP) to his phone.
• As soon as the victim re-entered the code (OTP) on the fake site, believing he was confirming the receipt of the watch, he granted the attacker full and immediate permission to withdraw the deposit and transfer the 750 million pounds out of the account.

The danger of this operation lies in the reliance on artificial intelligence technologies that made the crafting of messages, building fake pages, and forging customer welcome data more personalized and convincing at a lower cost.

Dr. Mohamed Fathi Al-Sharif, head of the Arab Center for Research, comments on this shift, saying: "The threat today no longer targets the walls of banks or their fortified systems, but rather the awareness and trust of the customer; the fraudster has become able to convince the victim to open the door themselves instead of trying to break it down."

How to protect your account from this trap?

Cybersecurity experts agree on a strict defensive plan to protect savings:

• Golden rule: Banks do not offer gifts or free watches through random links.
• Secure access: Only log into your account through the official app or by typing the bank's link yourself.
• Absolute confidentiality: The OTP is your final financial signature; do not share it with any page or person, no matter how official they seem.