CREDIT CARD CRIME ON THE RISE

My question still has to be , if France perfected this whole anti fraud, anti skimming thing over 10 years ago, why are the South African banks only waking up now? This is absolutely ridiculous! It would have cost them a lot less then to sort it out and furthermore, that means it would have cost us a lot less too - you do know of course that the cost of all of this will be handed down to us, the end users, in the form of more bank charges!

Wouldn't it just be lovely if we could sue their arses for 'Negligence'!

Credit card crime on rise

Yunus Kemp December 04 2006 at 07:54PM

A surge in credit card crime at hospitality establishments in Cape Town has prompted Business Against Crime to request that owners and managers in the sector be "wary" of staff targeting tourists. Business Against Crime's offices in Cape Town were made aware of nine complaints involving credit card skimming this past week alone. Skimming involves attaching a small electronic device to the card entry slot of an ATM to record a card's details without the cardholder's knowledge. Criminals are then able to produce a fake card and use it to withdraw money from an ATM. Business Against Crime managing director Annelie Rabie said it had received "quite a number of complaints" since its skimming awareness campaign began.

'A lot of people are also not aware of how much money gets skimmed off their accounts' "But not everything is reported," said Rabie. "A lot of people are also not aware of how much money gets skimmed off their accounts, and not everybody checks their credit card statements immediately." BAC asked that owners and managers of hotels and restaurants be wary of staff targeting tourists during checking in and out procedures or at points of sale in restaurants. Hospitality staff were prime targets for syndicates looking to recruit insiders "in need of cash". Business Against Crime said it was important that a staff member suspected of conspiring with syndicates should not be approached directly, as this might jeopardise police investigations. "Rather contact the SAPS commercial branch on telephone number 021 918 3217," said, Business Against Crime.

The growing use of chip-only cards will ensure that copying chips is not possible. Meanwhile, South African banks are spending millions of rands on added security measures in an attempt to stem a growing wave of card skimming crime at ATMs across the country. In a press statement, Standard Bank security expert Pat Pather said the rise in skimming coincided with a significant drop in Internet-based crimes like hacking and phishing, "We've put a lot of systems in place to foil Internet crime like two-factor authentication, but, as banks close off one avenue, criminals will try another," said Pather. "Card skimming is now the most frequently used method of ATM fraud being perpetrated across the globe. "Standard Bank said it was spending "millions of rands" on security around its cash machines. The measures include increasing physical security, displaying warning posters, installing new anti-skimming devices and monitoring customers' accounts at identified hot spots. The bank said card skimming was on the rise, but predicted that it would start dropping in the next year or two as new high-tech smart cards were steadily introduced. The growing use of chip-only cards will ensure that copying chips is not possible, because they are encrypted. New chip-based cards aim to cut fraud by including a smart chip, which can store more information than the usual magnetic strips, and also by having users verify transactions by keying in a PIN rather than signing a receipt.

France pioneered the technology more than 10 years ago, and reportedly cut fraud by almost 80 percent as a result. Absa, South Africa's largest retail bank, last week kicked off its Fraud Awareness Week, which runs until Wednesday. The bank has warned customers to beware of opportunists who pretended to be representing organisations they were not part of or try to access clients' accounts by means of identity theft.