Tips to ensure a safe festive season

WHILE police plan to blanket streets and malls with rookies in blue, it is your Facebook account and holiday bookings that might get you conned out of your hardearned cash.

The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) has warned against holiday-home scams, and criminals using your phone and social media profiles to commit credit card fraud.

Sabric chief executive Kalyani Pillay said a common type of fraud at this time of year involved fraudsters advertising holiday accommodation at attractive prices to lure their victims into booking.

“Once they receive the money from the victims, they will not be contactable and the victims lose their money,” Pillay said.

“The accommodation or booking are also non-existent.”

Private investigator Mike Bolhuis advised holidaymakers to do as much research as possible before paying over any money.

And while you might be happy to post your upcoming holiday snaps, Sabric has also warned about what you put online or say over the phone .

In the first nine months of this year alone, more than half-a-billion rand was stolen in debit and credit card fraud for South African-issued bank cards – up 0.4% for the same period from the previous year.

Fraudsters used voice soliciting, or Vishing, to manipulate people into disclosing confidential information by calling them and posing as a bank official or service provider.

Meanwhile, police intend upping their beat-cop numbers over the festive season after seeing positive results from increased visibility last year.

A daily average of 20 940 police officers were dispatched to shopping centres across Gauteng, Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, resulting in a reduction of crime during last year’s festive season compared with the previous year, according to the SAPS.

“All available resources including trainees will be mobilised and deployed in strategic areas,” acting national police commissioner Lieutenant-General Khomotso Phahlane said.

University of South Africa criminologist Professor Rudolph Zinn said his research with convicted criminals indicated that about 60% were scared off from committing a crime during visible policing operations.