ID Bank, Inecobank and Ardshinbank customers hit hardest by online banking fraud

Loans taken out in the names of citizens who fell victim to large-scale online banking fraud in Armenia have been frozen until the completion of criminal proceedings, said Mher Karagyozyan, head of the NGO Public Oversight. It is releated to the loans taken out before June 1, only such loans have been frozen, Pastinfo reported.

Karagyozyan noted that over 300 complaints had been filed by April, with most cases involving ID Bank, Inecobank, and Ardshinbank. Recently, new cases have also been reported at Artsakhbank, with losses of around 10–11 million AMD.

According to him, while stolen funds in some cases have been restored, banks still refuse to return money already withdrawn from victims’ salaries and pensions as loan repayments.

“If the court finds citizens acted in bad faith, they will be treated as fraudsters, not victims, and the contracts will stand. Otherwise, the debt will be canceled. But banks cannot shift responsibility onto victims—proper identification is their obligation,” Karagyozyan stressed.

He added that investigators who had worked on the cases were dismissed, and cooperation with new investigators remains limited.