Fraudsters are using the age-old phishing scam to defraud online banking customers and have revived advance fee scams to target more businesses.
Absa fraud solutions head Ally Mafunzwaini told MyBroadband that fraud campaigns have increased alongside relaxed Covid-19 restrictions.
“As the economic climate changes, there’s a marked increase in social engineering, where fraudsters or syndicates trick customers into disclosing their personal and confidential information,” he said.
Bank Zero said that phishing remains one of the most prevalent scam techniques.
Phishing refers to cybercriminals posing as legitimate companies, usually over email and increasingly over WhatsApp, Facebook, and Twitter, to trick targets into providing sensitive data.
These messages typically contain hyperlinks to malicious websites.
Nedbank said that fraudsters send emails that look like they come from the bank.
“When you click on the link, you are asked for your Nedbank ID username and password or card number and PIN,” Nedbank said.
“The fraudsters then use the details to access your bank account.”
On the other hand, vishing, or voice phishing, involves attackers calling consumers pretending to be official representatives of a bank.
“Clients receive calls from individuals purporting to be Nedbank employees and convince the victims to divulge their login credentials, giving fraudsters access to their Internet banking profiles,” Nedbank said.
SMS phishing, or smishing, tries to…
