BANKING CRIME
Criminals turn to
credit cards
The latest bank crime statistics reveal an increasing rate of credit card fraud.
C
redit card fraud in South Africa is on the rise,
according to the latest banking crime statistics
report revealed by the South African Banking
Risk Information Centre (Sabric). The report,
which covered the period from 1 January to
30 September 2013, based on information from 16 banks and credit
providers, revealed that the banking industry’s gross fraud losses
due to South African-issued credit card fraud grew by 22% – from
R300,6 million in 2012 to R366,8 million in 2013.
This report will be a further dent to online consumer confidence
after the global cyber-security firm, Norton’s 2012 Cybercrime Report,
placed South Africa third, behind China and Russia, in ranking the
world’s leading cyber-crime hotspots.
Counterfeit credit-card fraud losses are also on the rise, increasing
by 27% in 2013. About 61% of all counterfeit credit card losses occurred
outside South Africa in 2013, up from 45% in 2012. These did not only
happen in neighbouring countries such as Namibia, Botswana and
Mozambique, but in non-EMV (a standard for credit and debit payment
cards based on chip card technology) compliant nations like the United
States and Brazil.
Susan Potgieter, General Manager of Sabric’s commercial crime
whip, says that most of these crimes were perpetrated through ATM
cash withdrawals, and that the money was used predominantly for
groceries, airtime, online shopping and betting, hotel accommodation
and flights. This trend towards foreign usage represented additional
challenges for local law enforcement agencies, she adds.
DEBIT CARD LOSSES DOWN
In stark contrast to the credit card figures, the value of debit card fraud
losses decreased by 42% between January and September 2013; this is
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2013/12/20 9:14 AM