Credit Card Fraud and Prevention

South Africa’s banking industry has come a long way with various developments taking place. Security issues and in particular credit card fraud have continued to trouble this key sector.The banking industry’s gross fraud losses due to South African issued credit card fraud increased by 23% from R366m in 2013 to R453.9m in 2014.The losses associated with debit card fraud also showed an increase of five percent from R117.7m to R123.5m in 2014.

One of the most popular methods used by fraudsters is card skimming. Credit card skimming involves the illegal copying of encoded information from the magnetic strip of a legitimate card by means of a card reader.These devices have the ability to read and store the information on the magnetic strip of a card when the card is swiped through the device.There are however certain steps you can take to protect yourself against card skimming.

-If you think the ATM is faulty, cancel the transaction immediately, report the fault to your bank and transact at another ATM.

-Be cautious of strangers offering help as they could be trying to distract you in order to get your card or PIN.

-If your card is retained, do not leave the ATM before you have cancelled your card by calling your banks call centre using your own mobile phone.

-Never let the card out of your sight when making payments and if possible insert the card into the point of sale device yourself.

-If you have debit, cheque and credit cards, don’t choose the same PIN for all of them so that if you lose one, the others will still be safe.

-Choose familiar and well lit ATMs where you are visible and safe to transact.

-Keep your transaction slips and check them against your statement to spot any suspicious transactions.

-Do not insert your card if the screen layout is not familiar to you and looks like the ATM may have been tampered with.

-Never write your PIN on paper and store it in the same location as your card.