Robbers get smart with bluetooth
27 November 2009, 09:57
By Caryn Dolley
The Internet is making it "very easy" for syndicates to share stolen bank card information, according to Jerome Hardenberg of the police's Commercial Crimes Unit.
He said places where card fraud was most likely to occur included hotels, restaurants and car rental services.
But Hardenberg said fraudsters were becoming more savvy and were using technology to their advantage.
For example, they attached a bluetooth device to an ATM, sat nearby and via bluetooth received a banker's card details on a laptop when the card-holder performed a transaction.
In anticipation of the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected for the Fifa World Cup, Hardenberg said police were constantly communicating with those at tourist spots, restaurants and hotels.
The Western Cape has recorded the highest number of fraudulent Internet and telephonic banking transactions in the country and these crimes have escalated by nearly 200 percent in a year.
And when it comes to the most risky area in the province for card fraud, Cape Town has come out tops.
According to the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), "card not present fraud", which refers to online, telephonic and other transactions where a bank card is not physically used, increased by 194 percent from July last year to June this year, compared to the same period the previous year.
The sum of money industries have lost due to this type of crime has increased from R3,2-million to R9,5-million.
Yesterday during a joint media briefing with police, Sabric chief executive officer Kalyani Pillay said although overall card fraud had decreased in the Western Cape, the province had "the highest card not present fraud nationally" which was "definitely a concern".
She said unreported lost and stolen cards were most often used for this type of crime as well as counterfeit cards which were produced using someone's actual bank card information.
Pillay said Internet banking was a safe option, but clients had to be cautious when using this method.
"Don't do transactions from an Internet cafe because you don't know what security measures are in place."
Skimming was also still a problem and Pillay said 22 skimming devices were confiscated in the province in a year.
Pillay said areas in the province which were card fraud hot spots, in order of those most at risk, were Cape Town, Milnerton, Bellville, Goodwood and Brackenfell.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
The Internet is making it "very easy" for syndicates to share stolen bank card information, according to Jerome Hardenberg of the police's Commercial Crimes Unit.
He said places where card fraud was most likely to occur included hotels, restaurants and car rental services.
But Hardenberg said fraudsters were becoming more savvy and were using technology to their advantage.
For example, they attached a bluetooth device to an ATM, sat nearby and via bluetooth received a banker's card details on a laptop when the card-holder performed a transaction.
In anticipation of the hundreds of thousands of visitors expected for the Fifa World Cup, Hardenberg said police were constantly communicating with those at tourist spots, restaurants and hotels.
The Western Cape has recorded the highest number of fraudulent Internet and telephonic banking transactions in the country and these crimes have escalated by nearly 200 percent in a year.
And when it comes to the most risky area in the province for card fraud, Cape Town has come out tops.
According to the SA Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric), "card not present fraud", which refers to online, telephonic and other transactions where a bank card is not physically used, increased by 194 percent from July last year to June this year, compared to the same period the previous year.
The sum of money industries have lost due to this type of crime has increased from R3,2-million to R9,5-million.
Yesterday during a joint media briefing with police, Sabric chief executive officer Kalyani Pillay said although overall card fraud had decreased in the Western Cape, the province had "the highest card not present fraud nationally" which was "definitely a concern".
She said unreported lost and stolen cards were most often used for this type of crime as well as counterfeit cards which were produced using someone's actual bank card information.
Pillay said Internet banking was a safe option, but clients had to be cautious when using this method.
"Don't do transactions from an Internet cafe because you don't know what security measures are in place."
Skimming was also still a problem and Pillay said 22 skimming devices were confiscated in the province in a year.
Pillay said areas in the province which were card fraud hot spots, in order of those most at risk, were Cape Town, Milnerton, Bellville, Goodwood and Brackenfell.
caryn.dolley@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Times on November 27, 2009
Durban
