While online and contactless payments have become the norm in South Africa, major banks are reminding consumers to be aware of common scams, as the number of victims of banking scams has seen an uptick in 2023.<\/p>\n
According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), there has been an increase in banking scams this year, and several social engineering scams\u00a0are currently of great concern.<\/p>\n
Social engineering is a method used by fraudsters and entails psychological manipulation to deceive individuals and organisations into divulging sensitive information or performing specific actions, said SABRIC.<\/p>\n
The centre added that social engineering in the form of Phishing, Vishing and Smishing are rampant at the moment and <\/span>is used to obtain personal information, OTPs, and passwords to commit card fraud (specifically where the card is not present), account takeovers, and fraudulent transactions on digital channels.<\/p>\n Nowadays, exploiting the fact that almost everyone banks online has been criminals’ primary source of income.<\/p>\n Online banking fraud accounts for the second-highest percentage of gross losses, according to SABRIC\u2019s most up-to-date report, with the average victim losing R33,781.<\/p>\n SABRIC outlines the common social engineering tactics to keep an eye out for:<\/p>\n Capitec also noted these scams as standard, adding that Vishing accounts for about 99% of its fraud cases in South Africa.<\/p>\n Standard Bank and Discovery Bank are others that highlighted Vishing as a concern. However, they flagged incidences where fraudsters call customers claiming to be from the fraud department \u2013 advising clients that their accounts have been compromised as they have noticed fraudulent transactions on the account and would like to assist them in reversing these transactions.<\/p>\n Standard Bank further noted concerns relating to malware or remote access.<\/p>\n International cybersecurity firm Kaspersky uncovered this type of tactic at the beginning of the year, which involves malware that can block contactless near-field transactions on hacked points of sale (POS) terminals.<\/p>\n This, in turn, forces the customer to use their physical credit cards, enabling cybercriminals to steal money.<\/p>\n Reminding South Africans of best practice<\/strong><\/p>\n SABRIC highlighted the common ways customers could mitigate the risk of falling victim to the abovementioned scams:<\/p>\n The banks also reminded South Africans that an official banking service provider would never ask for sensitive account details or pins.<\/p>\n\n
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