DURBAN - Credit and debit card fraud is costing South Africa more than R600m a year.
And KwaZulu-Natal is one of the most affected provinces.
This is according to the latest card fraud statistics released by the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) which shows that credit card fraud had a 13% increase from R331.4m in 2015 to R375.4m in 2016 while debit card fraud increased by 3.1%, from R333.2m to R343.5m.
The report also indicates that 52% of debit card fraud occurred at ATM’s, in contrast to the 3% for credit cards.
Card not present (CNP) fraud on credit cards has increased by 18.9% from the previous year and accounts for 66.8% of the losses. This type of fraud on debit cards increased by 4.6%.
Other provinces that were affected the most are Gauteng and the Western Cape. Along with KZN, these provinces had 85.9% of all credit card gross fraud losses in the country. The Eastern Cape, Mpumalanga and North West follow these provinces. The report mentioned that credit cards issued in South Africa are used in neighbouring countries such as Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya and Lesotho.
Alfred Ramosedi, African Bank Sales and Marketing Executive, said criminals had become more sophisticated in their fraud scams. He shares the same concerns as SABRIC CEO, Kalyani Pillay, who said the evolving tactics used by criminals are worrying.
Ramosedi said there are different types of card fraud.
“Stolen-card fraud is pretty self-explanatory where criminals steal genuine bank cards together with the correct pin numbers and then use these cards immediately at the nearest ATM to withdraw cash followed by purchases at stores until the account is either empty or the card stopped.”
Counterfeit-card fraud is manufactured fraudulently and not issued by the bank. Criminals use compromised card data and the data is usually compromised through skimming.
With CNP fraud, the data is compromised in many ways. According to Ramosedi, this can range from physical theft of data off a genuine card to large data breaches usually carried out by syndicates.
Consumers can protect their card data with the following useful tips for card holders.
Review your account statements on a regular and timely basis; query any suspicious or unfamiliar transactions with your bank immediately.
When shopping online, only place orders with your card on secure websites.
Ensure that you get your own card back after every purchase and always ask that the credit card machine is swiped in front of you. Also never allow anyone else to use your card.
Never write down your pin or disclose it to anyone and use different pins for different cards.
Report lost and stolen cards immediately to your bank.
Destroy your credit card receipts before discarding them.
Sign your card on the back signature panel as soon as you receive it to stop anyone else from taking ownership or trying to use it.
Always check transaction slips for correct purchase amounts before you sign them.
Keep your transaction slips and check them against your statement to spot any suspicious transactions and query them immediately.
Make a list of all your cards and their numbers and store it in a safe place.
While transacting always keep an eye on the ATM card slot to ensure that your card is not taken out, skimmed and replaced without your knowledge. Sabric also advise that if you are not familiar with the screen layout of the ATM or if it appears that the machine has been tampered with, do not insert your card.
Should an ATM retain your card, contact your bank and block your card before you leave the ATM.
Subscribe to your bank's SMS notification services; this will inform you of any transactional activity on your account.
Source of data: Sabric 2016 Card Fraud Statistics