{"id":108073,"date":"2016-01-05T10:47:19","date_gmt":"2016-01-05T08:47:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=108073"},"modified":"2016-01-05T10:47:56","modified_gmt":"2016-01-05T08:47:56","slug":"this-banking-scam-is-on-the-rise-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/108073\/this-banking-scam-is-on-the-rise-in-south-africa\/","title":{"rendered":"Beware this banking scam on the rise in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) has warned that a scam informing people of a &#8216;Change in Banking Details&#8217; is on the rise in the country.<\/p>\n<p>A recipient receives an e-mail or letter informing them that a particular supplier of theirs is changing their bank account details. The correspondence will almost certainly include the details of the new account, the banking risk centre said.<\/p>\n<p>The letter\/email will ask the recipient to update their records accordingly with the consequence that future payments will be made to this account.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The details are, of course, fraudulent with the consequence that monies are paid to the fraudster and not the supplier,&#8221; SABRIC said.<\/p>\n<p>It pointed to a number of basic steps that can make it extremely difficult for a company to become a victim of this type of fraud:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Maintain a good relationship with existing suppliers and know your contacts and be able to liaise with them.<\/li>\n<li>Always be wary of changing account details.\u00a0 If a request is received, confirm in writing and by telephone to the supplier.<\/li>\n<li>If talking to this \u2018supplier\u2019 on the telephone beforehand, they may ask about when you last sent payments to them, looking to see if you are still an active client.<\/li>\n<li>Confirm notifications for any changes of banking details via official correspondence with your suppliers (such as a letter) using their contact details that you have in your database, preferably before processing the next payment.<\/li>\n<li>Beware of supposedly confirmatory e-mails from almost identical e-mail addresses, such as .com instead of .co.za, or addresses that differ from the genuine one by perhaps one letter that can be easily missed.<\/li>\n<li>Instruct staff with the responsibility for paying invoices to scrutinize invoices for irregularities and escalating suspicions to a known contact.<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It is essential to make sure that you are certain of the identity of the person your business is dealing with at all times. Consider setting up designated \u2018Single Points of Contact\u2019 with companies to which you make regular payments.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure that your company\u2019s private information is not disclosed to third parties who are not entitled to receive it, or third parties whose identities cannot be rightfully verified.<\/li>\n<li>Ensure that you confirm any change of banking details with someone you usually deal with at the organisation before making any changes to beneficiary accounts. When calling the organisation to confirm the changes to banking details, use a number from the telephone directory and not the number on the letterhead or fax, as you will in all likelihood be calling the fraudster.<\/li>\n<li>Question whether well-known companies would change their banking details without notifying people through more formal channels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>SABRIC said that victims of this type of fraud should notify the Police.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You can also commence a civil recovery of these monies against the fraudster. It may also be necessary to use tracing proceedings to trace the identity of the fraudsters or even freezing injunctions to freeze their assets of the fraudsters.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The banking organisation also stressed that electronic payments are made based on the account number only. Any account name given is not routinely checked as part of the automated payment process.<\/p>\n<h3 class=\"my-4\">More on scams in SA<\/h3>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/internet\/107489\/how-to-avoid-phishing-scams-this-holiday-season\/\">How to avoid phishing scams this holiday season<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/mobile\/107659\/beware-these-mtn-vodacom-billing-scams\/\">Beware these MTN, Vodacom billing scams<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/banking\/104701\/beware-r99-debit-order-scam-in-sa\/\">Beware R99 debit order scam in SA<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/general\/101426\/beware-these-car-crash-scams-in-south-africa\/\">Beware these car crash scams in South Africa<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Banking Risk Information Centre has warned that a scam informing people of a &#8216;Change in Banking Details&#8217; is on the rise in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":69657,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[961],"tags":[26,2635],"class_list":["post-108073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-headline","tag-sabric"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108073","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108073"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108073\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":108077,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108073\/revisions\/108077"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108073"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108073"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108073"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}