You've Been Scammed

Consumers’ accounts are being cleaned out by cyber hackers, raising questions over the safety of internet banking

- Almari Wessels

IT’S the stuff of nightmares. You log in to your internet banking profile and to your horror your current account is empty. How can this be? Just yesterday your salary was paid in and you haven’t touched a cent.

Last night while you were asleep someone accessed your account and went on a wild spending spree. And to add insult to injury, they’ve also maxed out your credit card.

How can this be happening? You’re always super-careful with your banking login details – there isn’t another living soul you’ve shared them with.

As banks become more high-tech and consumers get more security-savvy, this is the kind of crime you’d think would be on the wane. But you’d be wrong – sadly cybercriminals are still laughing all the way to (and from) the bank.

For the first time internet-banking fraud tops the list of complaints laid with South Africa’s ombudsman for banking services, confirms Edrich Buytendorp, acting banking ombudsman. These complaints now account for a quarter of his office’s workload. And one of the biggest offenders in this category is the dreaded SIM card swap.

Last year 124 cases were reported to the ombudsman and it seems this form of crime is still on the rise despite what the banks say – there have already been 74 cases reported since the beginning of the year. In many instances the victims are web-savvy people who swear they’ve never fallen prey to dodgy phishing scams aimed at accessing their login details. And they all want to know the same thing: how did the crooks manage to do it?