Fraudsters always find ways to persuade
While technology has introduced greater variety and convenience into our lives, it has also created new opportunities for cyber criminals to try to induce us to part with our money or information.
According to The Harvard Business Review, as developing economies such as South Africa rush to go online, a fertile testing environment has been created for hackers to practice their skills.
This is where they have the opportunity to evade detection before deploying their skills against a company or state with more advanced defences.
More and more transactions are being conducted on-line, and as a result, we are becom- ing increasingly exposed to falling victim to cyber-attacks. Cyber-criminals attack unsuspecting individuals in a variety of ways and these attacks are becoming ever more sophisticated and daring. We need to be far more vigilant now than ever before.
Cyber-crime (often called hacking) involves any criminal act using computers and networks. It includes crimes conducted through the inter- net, cyber extortion, ransomware, phishing, internet fraud, identity theft and credit card account theft. Spear phishing employs messages that appear innocuous but contain dangerous malware. It is one of the most popular forms of cyberattack, though it largely depends on the attackers’ ability to send a message that will fool a victim into opening a link or attachment.
There have recently been a number of cases where cyber-criminals have hacked into individual and corporate computer systems and then used sophisticated systems to monitor email conversations to intercept messages containing payment instructions. After they identified an opportunity, the fraudsters changed banking details and proof of payment receipt documentation to dupe unsuspecting individuals into paying large sums of money into bank accounts to which the criminals have access.
Even some local residents have recently fallen victim to this crime. In most cases, they have unfortunately not been able to recover any of the money that has been stolen, despite reporting the matter to the SAPS and the banking institutions involved.
When it comes to making payments using internet banking, we should get into the habit of first personally contacting the payee to confirm that the amount and account number into which the funds are to be transferred are correct.
This is especially relevant where we are required to make payment to a person or entity not set up as a beneficiary on our banking profile.
We should never respond to an unfamiliar internet banking-related email or SMS, nor provide any information about our online banking details in response to unsolicited tel- ephone calls. Also, never open an attachment in an email without first verifying the authenticity of the sender.
Finally, we should always make sure that our antivirus software is up-to-date and back-up our data on a regular basis. Education, sound judgment and a healthy dose of scepticism are our best defences against becoming a victim of cyber-theft. If an opportunity sounds too good to be true, it usually is!
• Rands and Sense is a monthly column, written by Ross Marriner, a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER® with PSG Wealth. His Financial Planning Office number is 046 622 2891
When it comes to making payments using internet banking, we should get into the habit of first personally contacting the payee to confirm that the amount and account number into which the funds are to be transferred are correct.