Criminals have organised themselves to leverage data to defraud victims despite digital banking and related products being far safer than in-person banking, says Nischal Mewalall, the chief executive officer of the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC).
Mewalall said that what has made it easier for people to get scammed is that criminals are leveraging data and exploiting the human vulnerability to gain personal or confidential information that eventually enables them to defraud a victim.
Criminals are not successful in committing digital crimes because they are able to hack a product but because they are successful in tricking the human user of the product, said Mewalall.
According to the SABRIC Annual Crime Statistics, there has been a significant increase in the number of cybercrimes with 35,307 incidents across banking apps, mobile banking and online banking in 2020 compared to 26,567 in 2019.
The new trend
SABRIC said they have seen increases in calls from fraudsters impersonating bank officials, this type of fraud is known as “vishing”, where:
- The criminal seeks to have a conversation with the victim posing as a ‘bank official’.
- The criminal then tries to persuade them to give away sensitive information that can be used to defraud the victim.
“This is a very common tactic and SABRIC has seen an increase in this type of crime being committed. If vishing and phishing efforts are successful, it then correlates with the high number…
