SABRIC concerned about fraud increase
The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) on behalf of the banking industry has voiced its concern about the increase in card fraud from January to September this year.
MBOMBELA – The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) on behalf of the banking industry has voiced its concern about the increase in card fraud from January to September this year.
The banking industry’s gross fraud losses due to South African issued credit card fraud increased by 23 per cent from R366m in 2013 to R453.9m in 2014.
SABRIC CEO, Kalyani Pillay said the biggest contributor to the increase has been False Application fraud which saw a very significant increase from R6.2m in 2013 to R78.3m in 2014.
“Of all fraud perpetrated on cards acquired through false applications, 88 per cent of the transactions occurred in South Africa.
SABRIC has found that criminals misuse the online application channels provided by Banks, by using false details to open multiple credit card accounts. Consequently, they then obtain legitimate cards and PINs,” added Pillay.
SABRIC was pleased to announce that counterfeit credit card fraud losses inside South Africa decreased by 12 per cent from R55.1m in 2013 to R48.4m in 2014. To the contrary though, Card Not Present fraud committed within South Africa increased by 21% from R56.7m in 2013 to R68.9m in 2014.
The losses associated with debit card fraud also showed an increase of five percent from R117.7m to R123.5m in 2014.
The majority of the debit card losses are related to counterfeit card fraud and most of the transactions occurred within South Africa.
When debit cards are used outside of the borders of South Africa a high percentage of the cards are used in neighboring countries such as Lesotho, Nambia, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Botswana.
Credit card fraud is most prevalent in the Provinces of Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal as they collectively accounted for 88% of all credit card fraud losses in South Africa.
These provinces also recorded the highest number of skimming devices retrieved. From 2005 to September 2014 a total of 1 377 handheld skimming devices were recovered by either SAPS or bank investigators, with 74 of these seized between January and September 2014.
The majority of handheld skimming devices were recovered in Gauteng (38), KwaZulu-Natal (13) and the Western Cape (9).
Card skimming involves the illegal copying of encoded information from the magnetic strip of a legitimate card by means of a card reader, and this could occur either at ATMs or points of sales.
“We urge bank customers to adhere to ATM safety tips such as not accepting assistance from anybody at the ATM and not letting their cards out of their sight when transacting”, said Pillay.
Fifty five per cent of the credit card fraud loss occurred in Gauteng. The losses increased by 49 per cent from R63.5m in 2013 to R94.7m in 2014.
Similar to the Gauteng Province, 22 per cent of the credit card gross fraud loss occurred in the Western Cape and the loss increased by 47 per cent from R26.2m in 2013 to R38.6m in 2014.
Kwa Zulu-Natal accounts for nine per cent of the gross fraud loss and increased from R13.5m in 2013 to R15.9 m in 2014 which accounts to 18 per cent increase in the losses.
A further increase was seen in Lost/Stolen Card Fraud from R7.9m to R41.2m.
Below are some important tips that bank consumers should adhere to ensure they don’t fall victim to card fraud:
* Be cautious of strangers offering help as they could be trying to distract you in order to get your card or PIN
* Keep your transaction slips and check them against your statement to spot any suspicious transactions which must be queried with your bank immediately
* If your card is retained, do not leave the ATM before you have cancelled your card by calling your Bank’s call centre using your own mobile phone
* Never let the card out of your sight when making payments and if possible insert the card into the POS device yourself.
* Do not ask anyone to assist you at the ATM, not even the security guard or a bank official. Rather go inside the bank for help.
* If you are disturbed or interfered with whilst transacting at the ATM, your card could be skimmed by being removed and replaced back into the ATM without your knowledge.
Cancel the transaction and immediately report the incident using your Bank’s Stop Card Toll free number which is displayed on the ATM or on the back of your bank card.
