Fraudsters using bank card details to steal from you

There has been an overall decrease in bank card fraud this year, but the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) notes with concern the increase in fraud when you have lost your card or it has been stolen.

Credit card fraud dropped by 28.6 percent, from R353.3 million last year to R252.2 million this year, although debit card fraud increased by 8.3 percent over the same period, Sabric said as it released its statistic for the year this week.

But it says “card-not-present fraud” increased by 12.6 percent from the previous year. It now accounts for 75 percent of the losses relating to South Africanissued credit cards.

Card-not-present fraud includes lost-card fraud, stolen-card fraud, account-takeover fraud and issued-card-not-received fraud.

Lost-card fraud is a fraudulent transaction that occurs on a validly issued card after a cardholder loses his or her card. Stolen-card fraud results from a fraudulent transaction performed with a validly issued card that was stolen from a legitimate owner.

Lost and/or stolen card fraud accounted for 46.2 percent of debit card fraud losses.

“With the roll-out of chip and PIN cards, criminals are reverting to card jamming and swapping at ATMs, accompanied by shoulder surfing for PIN numbers,” Sabric chief executive Kalyani Pillay says.

Even if your card is lost or stolen, without your PIN, your card is almost useless to criminals if they want to do an ATM or over-the-counter transaction.

However, criminals could transact with lost or stolen cards in a country that is not EMV-compliant (does not have chip and PIN cards), Pillay says.

“Card-not-present transactions can be done with the card, as the relevant details on the card will enable online transactions. For this reason, we urge bank customers to register for 3D Secure, which will help to protect them.”

Also known as Verified by Visa, MasterCard SecureCode or Amex Safekey, 3D Secure is an authentication service that allows only the cardholder to use the card when shopping online.

Account-takeover fraud is when an account is taken over by someone posing as the account holder.

Issued-card-not-received fraud relates to the interception of genuinely issued cards before they reach the authentic customers.

If your card is missing, you should report this to your bank immediately and ask it to block all transactions on your card, Pillay says.

Sabric says you should do the following to protect yourself from fraud:

◆ Subscribe to your bank’s SMS notification service, which will inform you of any transactional activity on your account;

◆ Register for 3D Secure before using your bank card online;

◆ Never send emails that quote your card’s number and expiry date;

◆ Don’t choose the same PIN for your debit, cheque and credit cards;

◆ Always cover the hand that types in your PIN when using your card at an ATM;

◆ Never accept assistance from strangers when transacting at an ATM – they could be trying to distract you in order to get your card or PIN;

◆ If your card is retained by an ATM, block your card before you leave the site; and

◆ Sign your card on the signature panel as soon as you receive it.