Union Bank tells staff not to communicate with senior management on social media

Identity spoofing is a practice wherein one person pretends to be another with the intent to commit fraud.

Public sector lender Union Bank of India has told its employees not to communicate with senior management via social media platforms, information accessed by Moneycontrol shows. This order follows an employee of the bank receiving a message on WhatsApp from someone impersonating A Manimekhalai, the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (MD and CEO) of the bank.

Following the incident, the bank sent an SMS to all the employees on October 30, 2023, saying a case of false identity usage by senior management had been observed on WhatsApp.

“Display name spoofing on WhatsApp of senior management has been noticed,” the SMS said. Additionally, the bank said that such cases, if occurring, should be reported.

Also read: Major banks warn customers against engaging with fake social media handles

Moneycontrol has reviewed the message received by the employee and the SMS sent by the bank.

An email sent to Union Bank of India did not elicit a response till the time of publishing this article.

Is this new?

Earlier, in June 2023, the country’s largest bank, the State Bank of India (SBI), issued a circular to its employees in which the lender said that all employees should use Microsoft Teams for official communication. Moneycontrol has reviewed the circular.

“We understand many of the branches and offices may still be communicating with each other using WhatsApp, and sensitive documents, contents, and information may be shared freely. It is therefore decided to stop using WhatsApp for official communication with immediate effect and use MS Teams,” the circular said.

Also read: Banks must promote more research on AI usage, says SBI's CTO

Earlier, in March 2023, major banks alerted customers not to engage with fake social media handles purporting to represent them. The official handles of HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank warned customers not to share their personal details with the fake handles.

The warnings came in the backdrop of customers complaining about fake bank handles asking for personal details from customers.

What is identity spoofing?

Identity spoofing is a practice wherein one person pretends to be another with the intent to commit fraud.

In Union Bank’s case, someone pretended to be the MD and CEO of the bank and texted one of the employees.