Beware of social media crimes this season

Social media crimes were on the rise, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), chief executive officer Kalyani Pillay said. Picture: Sisonke Mlamla/Cape Argus

Social media crimes were on the rise, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), chief executive officer Kalyani Pillay said. Picture: Sisonke Mlamla/Cape Argus

Published Nov 15, 2018

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Cape Town - Social media crimes were on the rise, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), chief executive officer Kalyani Pillay said.

Sabric has launched its festive season awareness campaign to warn the public of the modus operandi of criminals during this period.

Pillay said Sabric had seen an increase in the hacking of social media profiles, where a victim’s social media account was hijacked, creating a duplicate account using stolen personal information.

“Criminals gain access to victims’ contacts, pose as the victim, fabricate a tragic story, and sends a message to their contacts requesting money. The victim’s contacts then unknowingly transfer money to the criminal,” Pillay said.

She warned that criminals were skilled at using social engineering to manipulate their victims into divulging their personal or confidential information.

“Criminals are masters at social engineering and know how to exploit human vulnerabilities to perpetuate crimes, particularly over the festive season where they tend to let their guard down,” Pillay said.

Sabric urged consumers not to click on links or icons in unsolicited sites, emails or SMSes,

“Although phishing and vishing scams are not new, criminals are always finding new ways to trick customers by taking advantage of the slickness, convenience and efficiency of digital platforms.”

Pillay said banks would never ask people to confirm their confidential information over the phone. “If you receive a phone call requesting confidential or personal information, do not respond and end the call.”

Sabric gave tips to prevent festive scams, and said people must not fall for offers that were available at a very cheap price. Staff dealing with finance in organisations should be educated about such scams. They said people must carry as little cash as possible and consider the convenience of paying accounts electronically (consult your bank to find out about other available options). Some of the tips were people must vary the days and times on which they deposit cash, they must refrain from making cash deposits of club members’ contributions on high-risk days such as Monday after month-end.

Police spokesperson Novela Potelwa said they had outlined a number of festive programmes that helped bring awareness to people on how to safeguard their money during the festive season.

Potelwa said some of their plans were to deal with associated robberies where criminals followed a victim after a withdrawal at an ATM or from the bank remains rife.

“As criminals know that at this time of year, people receive their stokvel payouts and bonuses. We therefore urge people to avoid carrying large amounts of cash and use alternate safer ways to transact,” Potelwa said.

@SISONKE_MD

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