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Card fraud increases in S. Africa by 13 percent

Xinhua, April 25, 2017 Adjust font size:

South African banking industry released statistics on Tuesday which show that overall card fraud increased by 13 percent in 2016 as compared to the previous year.

The statistics were released by the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC) on behalf on the banking industry in Johannesburg.

According to the statistics, South African credit card fraud increased by 13 percent from 25.3 million U.S. dollars in 2015 to 28.6 million dollars in 2016, with debit card fraud increasing by 3.1 percent for the same period.

SABRIC CEO, Kalyani Pillay said card fraud is a global phenomenon and criminals always use evolving sophisticated tactics to defraud the banking clients.

"Criminals will always be on the lookout for gaps and weaknesses in order to defraud victims," said Pillay.

The CEO said they are concerned about the increase in cards fraud. The statistics show that credit card related Card Not Present (CNP) fraud increased by 18.9 percent from the previous year and accounts for 66.8 percent of the losses relating to South African issued credit cards.

CNP debit card fraud increased by 4.6 percent which can be attributed to a wider acceptance of debit cards by online vendors, SABRIC said.

Counterfeit debit card fraud decreased by 35 percent while counterfeit credit card fraud remained stable, accounting for 26.4 percent of losses. Pillay said this was caused by the measures employed by the banks in using Chip and PIN technology to avoid card cloning.

Some criminals have resorted to card jamming and swapping ATM's to steal cards, and some looking over the shoulders of those withdrawing cash to get the PIN. "Be cautious of strangers offering to help as they could be trying to distract you in order to get your card or PIN," he added.

SABRIC encouraged people not to allow their cards to be swiped at a small black device by unknown people. One of the guidelines for the safety is never to send emails that contain card numbers and expiry dates, or disclose this information over the phone.

SABRIC said clients should not insert their cards in the ATM which appear to have been tampered with. Endit