Protecting your personal information is vital

With enough of your personal information, fraudsters are also able to “take over” your bank account and obtain credit in your name.

The South African Banking Risk Information Centre says “account takeover card fraud” happens when an account is taken over by someone posing as you. The fraudster then uses your account for their benefit. The fraudster can do this by applying for a replacement card to use fraudulently. Fraudsters also commit “false application fraud” — obtaining credit in your name.

Senzo Nsibande, head of card fraud at FNB, offers the following tips to guard against falling victim to card-not-present fraud, which occurs when fraudsters use your credit or debit card information to shop in your name:

When shopping online, make sure you’re on a secure site – look for https in the URL;

Don’t go to online shopping sites via links in e-mails or via other websites — rather type the URL into your web browser yourself;

During an online shopping session, don’t share with anyone the one-time password sent from your bank to you; and

Subscribe to receive SMS notifications from your bank so that you’re notified of every transaction on your credit or debit card account.