{"id":284332,"date":"2018-12-24T10:00:56","date_gmt":"2018-12-24T08:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=284332"},"modified":"2018-12-23T10:53:47","modified_gmt":"2018-12-23T08:53:47","slug":"8-things-you-should-know-to-avoid-becoming-a-victim-of-sim-swap-fraud","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/284332\/8-things-you-should-know-to-avoid-becoming-a-victim-of-sim-swap-fraud\/","title":{"rendered":"8 things you should know to avoid becoming a victim of SIM-swap fraud"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), on behalf of the banking industry, recently released a series of tips on how the\u00a0public\u00a0can protect their money this festive season.<\/p>\n<p>According to statistics released by the association in October, the number of SIM-swap fraud incidents has more than doubled in South Africa compared to the same period last year.<\/p>\n<p>Sabric&#8217;s data shows there were 4,040 SIM-swaps incidents from January to August 2017 and 8,254 incidents from January to August 2018 \u2013 an increase of 104%.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cCriminals are always looking for ways to exploit digital platforms to defraud victims, but the mitigation strategies deployed by banks are very robust, so it is easier to target people as they are the weakest link,\u201d said Kalyani Pillay, Sabric CEO.<\/p>\n<p>Pillay added that criminals are very skilled at using social engineering to manipulate their victims into divulging their personal or confidential information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey capitalize on the fact that not all digital banking clients are digitally literate and exploit this vulnerability. Using technology, coupled with social engineering, criminals can gather sufficient information to impersonate victims, bypassing bank security protocols,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>Below Sabric outlined tips to avoid becoming a victim of SIM-swap fraud:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If reception on your cell phone is lost, immediately check what the problem could be, as you could have been a victim of an illegal SIM swap on your number. If confirmed, notify your bank immediately.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Inform your bank should your cell phone number changes so that your cell phone notification contact number is updated on its systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Register for your bank\u2019s cell phone notification service and receive electronic messages relating to activities or transactions on your accounts as and when they occur.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Regularly verify whether the details received from cell phone notifications are correct and according to the recent activity on your account. Should any detail appear suspicious immediately contact your Bank and report all log-on notification that are unknown to you.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Memorise your PIN and passwords, never write them down or share them, not even with a bank official.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Make sure your PIN and passwords cannot be seen when you enter them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>If you think your PIN and\/or password has been compromised, change it immediately either online or at your nearest branch.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Choose an unusual PIN and password that are hard to guess and change them often.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/telecommunications\/279405\/complaints-against-sa-telecom-companies-are-starting-to-stack-up\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Complaints against SA telecom companies are starting to stack up<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), on behalf of the banking industry, recently released a series of tips on how the\u00a0public\u00a0can protect their money this festive season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2041,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[26],"class_list":["post-284332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-telecommunications","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284332","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=284332"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284332\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291640,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284332\/revisions\/291640"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}