How AI is being used for advanced payment scams in South Africa
AI is a key weapon for modern scammers in South Africa – but payment providers are fighting back with their own use of AI.
This is according to Justin Carstens, Regional Manager at Altron FinTech subsidiary Altron NuPay.
Carstens said that the biggest threat AI poses to the payments sector is the scale at which it enables scammers to operate.
“AI can consume and process vast volumes of pure data in a short period of time to be used by scammers,” said Carstens.
“This is not being helped by the growth of social media, where everyone posts lots of personal data.”
With this personal information, AI can be used by scammers for social engineering – building trust with potential victims.
It can also be used to crack banking passwords, with data like the names of the victim’s family members and their pets two prime examples of sensitive data posted online.
Phishing and vishing
Carstens highlighted that AI is also being used by scammers to analyse and replicate organisations’ corporate identities and tones for their phishing and vishing efforts.
With AI, scammers can generate “realistic” fake communications, which are effective at convincing employees to give up important financial and banking information.
This extends to call centres, too, where fraudsters use AI to replicate how a company’s customer care professionals and chat bots typically interact with customers.
By pretending to be a call centre agent or chat bot, scammers are able to convince victims to give up their banking credentials and other personal data.
AI can save the day
While AI is being used extensively by scammers, Carstens said it is equally powerful in the hands of payment providers and businesses who want to combat malicious actors.
This is thanks to AI being incredibly effective at analysing an organisation’s entire data ecosystem and combining information from various sources to identify irregularities.
For example: If an employee processes a debit order at 23:00 on the 18th of the month, when working hours are 8:00 to 17:00 and debit orders are usually processed around the 25th, AI can automatically identify this as an irregularity and notify the relevant parties.
This is the most proactive form of dealing with scammers, and can combat malicious attempts before they get off the ground.
Carstens said AI is also great for onboarding new clients and employees, as it can be used to run comprehensive screening checks.
These checks will find if someone has falsified information on their application, or if they are related to another customer who was problematic or fraudulent.
Altron FinTech
Altron FinTech works with South African payment providers and businesses to ensure they are leveraging the latest technologies to streamline their finance and payments systems.
This includes empowering these organisations through the use AI across areas like onboarding, monitoring, and transaction facilitation – all of which helps your business reduce its risk of becoming a fraud victim.
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