RICO’s Q (OPINION) The Banco Nacional (BN) has launched comprehensive protection insurance for cases of theft and digital fraud, aimed at cardholders of credit, debit cards or accounts.
The BN has been at the center of the theft from the accounts of its customers. Though it has been reported at some other banks, but account holders at Banco Nacional have been the largest target group.
I am quite certain you or someone you know has been a victim, even if only for a few thousand colones, of this type of fraud.
Complaints to the BN is first met with blaming the customer for being careless with the use of the card(s) and/or account. The next line, we will look into it, but this happens only when the customer keeps pressing after filing a formal complaint.
Months can pass before a resolution, and not always in the customer’s favor.
Now, you would think that the State bank would take proper actions and steps to secure the accounts of its customers. Maybe it has, but in my wife’s case, she has been a twice victim over the last couple of years. In the first, it was resolved in her favor, in the second, more than two months later, no word.
So, if it has, and given the rise in complaints against the BN, there is no visible, looking from the outside, action taken.
What the BN has done, however, is starting to offer clients to pay, by way of an insurance premium, to have their accounts and credit and debit cards protected against fraud.
“This comprehensive insurance proposal, with additional benefits, responds to many requests from people who constantly consult us about this type of coverage, given the increase in both physical theft and computer crime,” explained to La Republica, the commercial director of BN Corredora de Seguros, Antonio Mora.
“This is the Total Protection Plus policy, which includes additional coverage for digital fraud, theft due to card loss, fraudulent purchases over the Internet, and ATM robbery or express kidnapping, among others,” added Mora.
Nice way to victimize its clients and profit from it.
But this policy is not only for the asking, the Banco Nacional is carrying out a telemarketing campaign, where customers are contacted and the product is offered.
Wait, isn’t one of the blame given by the bank that the customer has been duped by a telemarketer? And not it is doing exactly what it tells its customers to be wary of?
The bank insists that the calls are not to request sensitive data or passwords, only to explain about this insurance, and therefore the importance of prevention and never offering personal information is reiterated.
I believe it is time to do away with this bank. I urge the government of Rodrigo Chaves to reconsider its plans to sell off the other State bank, the Banco de Costa Rica (BCR), and instead focus on divesting the Banco Nacional, a travesty under the guise of a bank.
My two colones worth.
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