WhatsApp warning for people living in Cape Town
The City of Cape Town has warned customers to be on the lookout for scams, as criminals are focusing on the city’s electricity services.
The city’s Energy and Finance Directorates were alerted to an apparent scam in which one of its Large Power User customers was approached via WhatsApp to make a large payment on their account.
Failing to make the payment would result in the customer’s supply being disconnected.
In the interaction, the criminal threatened the customer by showing images of a potential disconnection. They then phoned and messaged in quick succession after not receiving a response.
The scammer referenced the correct account number and requested payment into an FNB account, which is concerning given that the customer’s outstanding amount exceeded R1 million.
The customer suspected that something was awry and messaged the city to verify. He then made a payment to the city account.
The customer then made a payment to the correct City account, not directly to the scammer’s bank account.
The city said that it would never contact via WhatsApp about payments. No city official would request payment via their personal bank account.
“Importantly, all payments to the City must be made through official City channels, such as visiting a municipal cash office or by making electronic payments using details on the monthly municipal bill,” it said.
“We appeal to all residents to remain alert and report all suspicious encounters. Always pause and verify first by phoning the City’s Call Centre on 0860,103,089.”
The city noted that it would also never notify residents of service disconnections (water or electricity) via WhatsApp.
Major scam warnings for South Africans
Michael Lazenby and Yvette du Toit from Ziyasiza recently said scammers are a dime a dozen as digital communication becomes embedded in daily life.
Messaging scams or ‘smishing’ are incredibly efficient among scammers, and often have higher achievement rates for criminals. Links are also popular among criminals.
“The links are designed to lure a victim to a fictitious website, which is typically remarkably accurate, most often including correct contact information,” said the experts.
“One click on a fraudulent link and the dark web takes over, triggering keystroke tracking, password harvesting and the extraction of financial data.”
The details are then monetised using untraceable purchases of gift cards, online subscriptions, digital vouchers and other anonymous transactions.
Current-day scamming trends are so successful that the scamming groups can now openly sell the hardware upon which these scams can be executed via various technology platforms.
Cybercriminals can also infiltrate legitimate institutional databases, allowing them to access a user’s personal details and even banking credentials to be passed to organised crime groups.
“Affluent individuals and pensioners remain prime targets, with cybercriminals often purchasing stolen databases from compromised financial institutions and service providers,” said the experts.
“These datasets include personal information and, in some cases, banking credentials – shortening the criminals’ path to a successful attack. The primary defence remains vigilance.”
They said the golden rule for avoiding scams is not to click any links in messages without first checking their legitimacy.
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