Ethics and fraud in E-banking services

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the importance of ethics applied to everyday moral problems arising from the use of e-banking services. These services have advantages in financial transactions, but security threats and vulnerabilities must be constantly reduced. In this framework raises the “good citizen” that desires to do well and needs to avoid harmful behavior [1]. While the “bad citizen” promotes the lack of transparency, wrong attitudes and “hidden” awareness of the nature, level and scope of the financial impact which claims to reduce the social responsibility [2] and produces high level of degree of materialistic values were less likely to acquire moral [3]. Indeed, the integration of fraud on all aspects of the e-banking services requires the profound revision of the traditional commercial paradigms that have been prevailed for last years. Thus, on the one hand, the theoretical framework of this paper is based on literature about ethics and fraud, in general, and information and communication technology of the e-banking services, in particular. On the other hand, the empirical framework reflects the practices in this field of research used by banks with public data available on the Portuguese Banking Association. The results of the paper show several threats, vulnerabilities, incidents, impacts and response that face e-banking services. To mitigate these risks, the main challenge is the public discussion that will promote prevention and disclosure evidence-based incidents, not only to endorse an adequate behavior but, also, to develop guidance on practical evidence on ethics and reduce fraud.