With online transactions becoming the norm and personal banking details protected by a handful of passwords and authentication processes, consumers must be aware of common scams.
Discovery Bank has urged its clients to stay ‘cyber-safe’ on sales periods such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday, as well as the festive season in general, noting that criminals are out to steal money.
According to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), the number of non-contact baking frauds decreased in the country in 2021 – however, this is no reason to become complacent.
In its most recent annual report for 2021, Sabric stated that there was a significant increase of 45% in gross losses from banking-related frauds, from R310 million in 2020 to R440 million the following year, despite an 18% decrease in reported incidents since 2020, primarily attributable to a decrease in mobile banking fraud incidents.
Nowadays, exploiting the fact that almost everyone banks online has been the main source of income for criminals.
Online banking fraud accounts for the second-highest percentage of gross losses, according to Sabric, although making up a modest proportion of instances of digital crime. The average amount of money stolen from victims was R33,781.
In a fraud alert issued by the bank, Discovery listed the following scams which are currently most prevalent in the country:
- Phishing – when fraudsters send emails that appear to be from reputable businesses, like…
