Kalyani Pillay | CEO | South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) | email me |
SABRIC, on behalf of the banking industry has released its annual crime stats for 2018. We are concerned about some of the increases, which clearly reflect that criminals will take every opportunity to get their hands on bank customers’ money.
Combined gross card fraud losses on South African issued cards saw an 18% increase from 2017 to 2018, totalling R873,394,351 with credit card fraud increasing by 18.4% and debit card fraud increasing by 17.5%.
Card Not Present (CNP) fraud on South African issued credit cards remained the leading contributor to gross fraud losses in the country, accounting for 79.5% of all losses. CNP debit card fraud showed the greatest increase in losses at 62.3%, due to the enablement of CNP transactions on debit cards.
Vishing incidents
We have seen a sharp increase in vishing incidents, where criminals phone bank customers, lead them to believe that they are speaking to the bank or a legitimate service provider and use social engineering tactics to manipulate them into disclosing their confidential bank card details, as well as other personal information.
A bank will never call you to ask for this information. If you receive such a call, put the phone down immediately.
In 2018, lost and/or stolen debit card fraud amounted to 42.5% of all debit card fraud and bank customers continue to fall victim to fraud at ATM’s while transacting. Criminals approach victims under the pretext of being helpful, and in many instances even pose as a bank official.
They then steal the victim’s banks card and shoulder surf to obtain the PIN. We therefore urge bank clients to never accept assistance from anyone at an ATM, no matter how friendly or helpful they may appear.
In 2018, 23,466 incidents across banking apps, online banking and mobile banking amounted to R262,826,888 in gross losses. It is concerning that incidents across these platforms increased by 75,3%.
Mobile banking incidents
Mobile banking incidents showed an increase of 100%, with gross losses of R28,941,040 while online banking incidents showed an increase of 37.5% with gross losses of R129,002,523.
Banking app incidents increased by 55.4%, with gross losses of R104,883,325 for the same period. SIM swaps in the mobile banking space saw an increase of over 200% to 11,077 incidents.
Criminals are very adept at understanding psychology and will use social engineering tactics to exploit any human vulnerability to harvest confidential information like a PIN or a password in order to steal cash.
When it comes to online banking, beware of phishing emails that request that you click on a link. The link directs you to a ‘spoofed’ website designed to obtain, verify or update contact details or other sensitive financial information. Never click on links in unsolicited emails!
Cash in transit (CIT) robberies
We are pleased that cash in transit (CIT) robberies decreased by 22% from 376 to 292 incidents from 2017 to 2018. Cash losses here also showed a decrease of 22% for the same period.
We will continue to work closely with law enforcement and other partners to address the scourge and ensure further declines.
To have any significant impact on the fight against all of these crimes, the collective efforts of banks, bank customers and law enforcement are imperative.
