Huge threat to mobile banking
BANKS and banking developed for many reasons, but the ease with which transactions could be conducted with safety was key among them. Hiding money under the mattress and carrying it around in unwieldy bundles was perceived as being unhealthy.
Now, however, banks are under attack from a wide range of assailants and, as they run for cover to protect themselves, so they leave their customers exposed.
A colleague found herself at the wrong end of someone who persistently tried to gain access to vital information by making voicemail and text contact over her cellphone. Although she released no information, her account security was indeed broached and she was relieved of R38,000.
Now, seven months later, her bank has finally agreed, after she resorted to legal action, to reimburse the capital and to waive the interest it claimed.
No sooner had that been resolved than yet another attempt was launched, this time on a different credit card with a different bank and different name. When she reported the latest attempt she was advised to cancel the card promptly, and she has since removed all her personal information from the internet.
This means, of course, that she cannot now conduct many transactions electronically. However, it also means her accounts cannot be accessed by wicked individuals seeking to relieve her of the modest sums she holds in them.
The problems have been accentuated by payment management transaction systems and the increasing use of smartphones and Trojan-type applications.
Until it is regarded as the single most significant threat facing the high street banks, fraud on an everincreasing scale threatens the longevity of the mobile payment system.
ATOTALLY unconfirmed story that has been relayed to me has it that Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga is being pilloried not because of the role she apparently played in the state’s failure to deliver school books on time, but because she became aware of corruption involving the awarding of book printing contracts.
The attempt to blacken her reputation at the peak of the delivery fiasco was intended, apparently, to distract public attention conveniently from what was really going on.
E-mail: david@gleason.co.za Twitter: @TheTorqueColumn