It is now more important than ever for potential investors and consumers to know how to protect themselves from cybercriminals, warned 27four Investment Managers.
Speaking at Money Smart Week South Africa 2021, Gugulethu Silokwane, Compliance Officer at 27four Investment Managers, defined fraud as the unlawful and intentional making of misrepresentation which causes actual prejudice.
According to Gugulethu, these are the types of frauds consumers should be aware of:
• Identity Theft: Identity theft occurs when someone uses another person’s identity without their permission to commit fraud.
• Application Fraud: Application fraud occurs when an application for credit or a loan is completed using someone else’s information.
• White Collar Crime: Crime committed by organisations in a formal business and or corporate environments.
• Email or phone scams: Emails or phone calls stating that you have won a competition or the lotto, where you are required to make a payment before your winnings are paid to you.
• Consumer Fraud: Consumer fraud involves a business deceiving a consumer through unfair, legitimate or misleading business practices. The victims of consumer fraud believe that they are participating in a legal and valid business transaction.
• Cyber Fraud and Cybercrime: Cyber fraud and cybercrimes involve hackers extracting personal information, login details and passwords. Cybercrimes also include phishing, website cloning, cyber-bulling and cyber-impersonation.
Fraud often changes the lives of the consumer as it results to detrimental effects including emotional and physical distress, financial loss and is usually a challenge to re-establish the legal and financial identity once it has been stolen.
In order to avoid this type of fraud, the consumer can follow the steps below:
• Google search suspicious deals and offers.
• Do not ever share your personal, banking and credit card information.
• Have a good anti-virus and keep it up to date.
• Avoid Ponzi schemes
Knowledge and understanding needs to be a priority for consumers to protect themselves from cybercriminals and fraudsters. If you suspect that you are a victim of fraud, contact the credit provider or the debt collector in question to establish if you have been a victim of fraud, report the fraud to the police and request the credit provider to share a letter of confirmation.
