Bank card fraud down, but consumers told to be wary

THE BANKING industry has seen a 13 percent overall decrease in card fraud for 2015, the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) said yesterday.

Credit card fraud decreased by 28.6 percent from R353 million last year to R252m this year, said chief executive Kalyani Pillay.

This was for the period between January and September.

“The banking industry attributes the overall decrease to various measures implemented to fight the scourge of card fraud which have been effective,” Pillay told reporters at a briefing in Joburg.

“These measures include the continuous improvement of internal systems and processes as well as the roll-out of chip and PIN technology for debit cards.”

However, debit card fraud increased by 8.3 percent. Debit card fraud for this year was at R257m compared to R237m last year, said Pillay.

She said overall card fraud in South Africa occurred mostly in Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. There were, however, increases of fraud in Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape.

Most of the stolen money from credit cards was spent outside South Africa.

“At least R101m was spent in the country, and R150.9m was spent in other countries. With debit cards it was the opposite, with R193.2m spent here and R63.9m spent in other countries,” said Pillay.

With the festive season approaching and consumers expected to spend more cash, Pillay advised bank customers to be vigilant when using ATMs.

“No one should know your PIN – not even your family member. Do not accept help at an ATM, because that is where card skimmers harvest card information.

“Use your other hand to hide the PIN as you put it in at the machine,” she said. – ANA