Tag: phishing scam

The rise in finance and accounting cybercrime through phishing and Business Email Compromise (BEC) has made headlines with massive implications for South African companies with gaps in their payment systems. However, robust financial controls together with strong server, IT, and email monitoring processes aren’t enough if staff aren’t savvy to the psychological tricks scammers use to manipulate people, making them more vulnerable to tricker and deception.

If you believe cybercrime is something that only happens to businesses and “other people,” now is a good time to reboot your attitude. South Africa currently has the third highest number of cybercrime victims worldwide according to Accenture, with cybercrime costing South Africa R2.2 billion per year.

Since the emergence of Bitcoin in 2009, cryptocurrency has gained significant traction in popularity over the years, with more and more people investing in the now many variations of digital currencies available such as Ethereum, Tether, Binance, and even Dogecoin.

The global adoption of digital technology is rapidly increasing, which has caused an evolution in criminal behaviour resulting in the increased occurrence of cyberattacks on businesses and individuals respectively.

As interest rates continue to rise, it is more important than ever to put down a deposit on your new home to keep your monthly bond repayments down. Inflation in South Africa rose to 5.9% in April 2022 and by the end of May, the Reserve Bank’s Monetary Policy Committee increased the repo rate by 100 base points to 4.75%.

Recently, the FBI announced that more companies have been reporting people applying to jobs using deepfakes. Imposters use video, images, recordings, and stolen identities pretending to be someone else to get a remote IT position.

There are two recent matters that were investigated by our office where two private banking customers fell victim to the same scam under the exact same circumstances. The story behind convincing the victims to disclose their confidential banking information was new. However, the basic scam remained the same, as did the results.

Welcome to the holiday shopping season for 2021, the second impacted by the pandemic. Supply chain issues aren’t the only things that can ruin your holidays this year. Global Supply chain issues and scenes of countless ships waiting to unload their global cargo have certainly reminded us all of how interconnected we are around the globe.

The Festive Season is a time when most South Africans, like the rest of the world, will be looking to spoil their loved ones by purchasing them gifts. Over the past few years, South Africans have been lucky enough to be able to take advantage of the discounts that are offered on Black Friday (the last Friday in November) and Cyber Monday (the Monday immediately following Black Friday).

The pandemic forced everyone to spend more time online than they did before. This was out of necessity because of remote working and the need to buy services and products online. A global collective of highly sophisticated networks of criminals are aware of this larger, captive online audience, and they have innovated and stepped up both the frequency and the complexity of their attacks.