The most prominent scams reported by the banking industry during 2021 were phishing and OTP vishing.
Nthabi Nhlapo she reflects on the shock that snapped her out of vacation mode when she became a victim of credit card fraud. Unfortunately, he also discovered that not much can be done to help victims quickly when these cases are reported.
It’s time for a reality check, and what worse way to remind yourself that the dreaminess and friendliness of the festive season is just a brief break from real life than to become a credit card fraud statistic? Once the elves returned to the North Pole and the Christmas trees found their way back to their dusty boxes, the thugs began to scurry away, making januconcern more headache than it already is.
I hope no one else kicked off their New Years like I did with a text on January 2 that read: “Miss Nhlapo, your CTM store card is ready for pickup at your nearest CTM store today. Remember to bring your original ID/book or driver’s license with you.”
This text was followed by a shocking one that immediately put me out of vacation mode. He said: “CTM Card: Thank you for shopping at Shoprite Checkers…for R19 500.00.” A few minutes later another text message followed confirming a purchase of R488. This left a balance of R11 on the card, which apparently had a credit limit of R20,000.
All of these text messages would be fine, except the purchases were made in Gordon’s Bay, Cape Town, while I was sitting at home in Randburg, Joburg, over 1,400km away. To add salt to the wound, I don’t have a CTM card and I’ve never applied for it. In fact, I had no idea the store even had a line of credit or that you could use their card to make purchases at Checkers.
Of course, I contacted the company’s fraud department to report the case. However, this is a big drawback, especially since I also found out that the fraudulent transaction was already on my credit record. Also, it will take 21 business days to complete an investigation into the issue, and the outcome is not guaranteed to be in my favor.
Just as we prepare to head back into a new year and do our vision boards, such incidents can certainly put a damper on your mood and thwart your efforts to have a positive year. It is also worrisome to be forced to wait for investigations to be completed and a result to be reported. But the reality is that this is the country we live in, where fraud is rife and the consequences are few, while ordinary people are forced to deal with the results of flagrant crime.
A report by university researchers and published in various magazines attempts to explain credit card fraud in the Vaal region of South Africa, which is where I grew up. The researchers say that the growing volume of electronic payments and the monetary stress of credit card fraud is becoming a major challenge for financial institutions and service providers, forcing them to continually improve their fraud detection systems.
However, criminals are also getting smarter and finding ways around these systems. Recent crime statistics from the South African Banking Risk Information Center (SABRIC) revealed that card-not-present (CNP) fraud, a fraudulent transaction in which neither the card nor the cardholder is present while transactions are made transactions, contributed to 55.3% of all card fraud in 2021.
CNP fraud increased 31.5% compared to 2020. Digital banking fraud incidents decreased 18% overall, but while the number of incidents decreased, there was a 45% increase in total gross losses in banking digital in the reporting period. ATM attacks increased 11% with a 17% increase in losses, while vehicle and asset financial fraud increased 53%.
According to SABRIC, the most prominent scams reported by the banking industry during 2021 were phishing and OTP vishing, where customers were manipulated into providing bank details to scammers posing as bank officials.
Unfortunately, not much can be done to help victims quickly when these cases are reported. In my case, all I can do is wait for the investigation to conclude.
In the paper from the Vaal region, the researchers noted: “SAPS participants in all three areas indicated that they do not have a strategy to investigate credit card fraud, as the perpetrators of this crime use advanced technological tools and techniques. They stressed that they do not have technological skills or tools and lack the resources to investigate cases of credit card fraud.”
It’s about time something was done about the high levels of crime in this country because living a “god help me, fingers crossed” existence has no place in a modern democratic society.
– Nthabi Nhlapo is the editor of W24
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