While crooks are becoming more cunning, credit and debit card fraud continues to rise. The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) reports this kind of fraud cost the South African banking industry R263.8 million between September 2009 and September 2010.
While crooks are becoming more cunning, credit and debit card fraud continues to rise. The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) reports this kind of fraud cost the South African banking industry R263.8 million between September 2009 and September 2010.
This money is lost to the banking industry – and ultimately to the public. It also indicates just how often consumers fall prey to banking fraud.
One increasingly prevalent kind of card fraud is a method called “skimming”, which is a process of stealing the information lodged in the magnetic stripe of your debit or credit card.
A typical skimming device is a palm-sized portable machine that would be used to retrieve the information from the original card. A device like this would be capable of reading and storing the data from an astonishing number of cards – with just one such machine a crook could save information from between 200 to 3000 accounts.
Fraudsters often gang up with the owners of businesses or cashiers where people use their credit and debit cards. When it comes time to pay a cashier involved in the scam would swipe the consumer’s card through the skimming device before or after swiping it through the legitimate machine.
The skimming device then captures the data of the consumer’s account. After the information is retrieved from a computer, counterfeit cards are made which carry the information from your original card.
Fraudsters use the counterfeit cards to buy goods and services, and they can also make cash withdrawals from ATMs.
Kalyani Pillay, chief executive officer of Sabric, said “bank clients are advised to always be vigilant when transacting with their cards.”
Tips to avoid skimming
• Be vigilant at the point of sale when you make a transaction.
• Take your card along to the point of sale terminal yourself, or if the shop uses a mobile device, ask for it to be brought to you. This will avoid giving unscrupulous cashiers or merchants the opportunity to swipe your card through their skimming device.
• Examine your card thoroughly when you get it back after it has been swiped for payment. Check your signature on the card. It is very important to do this because sometimes the fraudster changes the card as well as skimming. Consumers must also avoid lending their cards to anyone.
• Report any suspicious transaction immediately to your bank.
If you fall victim to skimming, or if you come across someone else who is involved in skimming, you should report these fraudulent activities to the nearest police station. For more information and other ways to prevent this kind of fraud, visit Sabric’s website at www.sabric.co.za.
