BANKING CRIME
compared to the same period last year, falling from R204 million to
R117,7 million. Sabric attributed this decrease to new banking systems,
and increased collaboration between the industry and law enforcement.
Gauteng, the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal experienced 86.1%
of the credit card fraud losses, with 42.8% of the transactions occurring
in Gauteng.
New security measures meant that criminals were returning to lowtech frauds, revealing a statistic of a 102% increase to 31 million in 2013
in lost or stolen card fraud.
‘Changes in business processes linked to chip and PIN cards
necessitated criminals to revert back to older modus operandi such as
shoulder surfing (watching a client type in the PIN), and card jamming
or swapping. This has led to the visible increase in lost and/or stolen
card fraud to levels last seen in 2010,’ says Potgieter.
Card not present (CNP) fraud losses increased by 16%, from
R154,7 million in 2012 to R178,7 million in 2013. This fraudulent activity
takes place where neither the card nor cardholder is present during
these transactions.
Card skimming, which involves the copying of encoded information
for illicit purposes, and transactions with a card reader, continued to be
the scourge of the banking industry. According to Potgieter, skimming
devices can be set up at an ATM in as little as 30 seconds, and the
majority of these are locally assembled. In 2013, 162 devices were
recovered – 80 from Gauteng and 23 from Mpumalanga.
‘It’s simple enough to buy a card reader – you can get one on the
Internet,’ states Potgieter. ‘It’s the sa