Money launderers, fraudsters, and sundry other financial criminals typically seek to take full advantage of chaos. For example, with telephone lines and internet access down, they may seek to impersonate affluent bank clients, important corporate entities, or even international financial institutions. The object is to convince a bank or NBFI that is without communication access that there is some sort of financial emergency, and funds urgently are needed by the customer. Since verification of identity is impossible at present, the criminals could succeed.

The other threat is posed by money launderers, who may seek to deposit financial instruments, hoping that due diligence checks are offline with the internet-based services that the bank utilises.

Remember the old adage, " the best time to rob a bank is in the middle of a war." Natural disasters provide the same opportunities for criminal elements, as bank staff are taxed to the maximum by such difficulties.

Outside the region, watch any purported traffic from the two affected nations' financial systems, for  funds transfers listing bogus originators can be effectuated through third parties operating in some of the more "outlaw" offshore tax haven jurisdictions.