Identity theft up 337% in 2020, says SAFPS

The rate of identity theft and fraud increased 370% during the past year of Covid-19 lockdown, warns the leading fraud prevention non-profit organisation in the country.

“We are reaching a critical point when it comes to the economy and the extreme measures criminals use to perpetrate fraud,” says Manie van Schalkwyk, CEO of SA Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS).

“The 2020 statistics collected by SAFPS indicate there are significant increases in key areas and there is a long road ahead to address this challenge.”

Fraud in the Eastern Cape increased by 161% and 120% in Gauteng, says SAFPS. Only Limpopo did not have an increase in this kind of fraud. Fraud listings increased by 62% and victim listings by 54%.

Van Schalkwyk says various factors created a perfect storm for identity theft. Amid the pandemic, people received emails with a link to click on if they needed relief or a payment holiday. People who clicked on the link then had to enter their confidential information.

Add to this the data breaches at Experian, where the data of 20 million people were stolen and it is not difficult to believe impersonation fraud could increase by so much. During the pandemic, most people started doing everything online or on the phone and the stolen information was used to apply for credit.

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Van Schalkwyk says indentity theft is the act of a criminal impersonating another person, stealing their identity and opening accounts in their name. The fraudster steals the details of the victim and tries to take over the account.  The credit provider will ask the normal questions and the thief then uses the stolen information to answer. The fraudster cane then take over the account, leaving the victim with massive amounts of debt.

“The year 2020 was a year of major disruption as many employees had to work from home. These employees had to work and in some cases send sensitive information across servers that do not have the same level of security as the servers at their normal place of work,” Van Schalkwyk said.

“The Fourth Industrial Revolution is driven by data and cyber criminals are conducting targeted attacks on servers to steal valuable data to commit fraud. We saw this in the Experian and Absa data breaches last year. The fact that there is a significant increase in victim listings could be because of an increase in data breaches.”

He says the increase in impersonation fraud is extremely concerning. “Technology has also improved significantly and it is very easy to make a fake application look very legitimate.”

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Protective registration for protection

SAFPS offers protective registration – a free service that protects individuals against identity fraud. You can apply for this service and the SAFPS will alert its members to take additional care when dealing with your details.

It provides an added layer of protection and peace of mind, regardless of whether your information has been compromised. Visit the website at www.safps.org.za and click on “protect your identity”. You will need your ID to register.

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