The Hawks\u2019 Serious Commercial Crime Investigation unit has arrested two call centre operators for allegedly selling customer’s card information.<\/p>\n
In a statement, the Hawks said that the two suspects are aged between 23 and 29 and were employed as call centre agents for a reputable financial service credit provider in Goodwood (Cape Town).<\/p>\n
“It is alleged that the duo supplied card holder\u2019s information to a syndicate,” the Hawks said.<\/p>\n
“Subsequently, counterfeit cards were allegedly manufactured by the syndicate and used for illegal purchases.”<\/p>\n
Over R95,000 loss was incurred across eight card holders during period between 1 March and 9 April 2019.<\/p>\n
“These two call centre agents allegedly gained access to card holder\u2019s information whilst performing their duties of dealing with customer\u2019s queries and requests.”<\/p>\n
According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre\u2019s (Sabric\u2019s) latest card fraud statistics, debit and credit card accounted for R342.2 million and R436.7 million being stolen in 2017 respectively.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest contributors is counterfeit card fraud which led to R83.6 million being stolen in 2017, the group said.<\/p>\n
Counterfeit card fraud is perpetrated with a card that has been illegally manufactured using information stolen from the magnetic strip of a genuinely issued card.<\/p>\n
“In some instances, lost, stolen and old cards are re-encoded with information stolen from a genuine card for purposes of committing counterfeit card fraud,” Sabric said.<\/p>\n
“The information needed for counterfeit card fraud is usually stolen through card skimming.”<\/p>\n