WITH Valentine’s Day shopping in full swing, banks are raising the red flag for consumers to keep a close watch on their bank cards.
According to the South African Banking Risk Identification Centre (SABRIC), card skimming has been identified as a prominent crime every year before and during the ‘day of love’.
‘SABRIC warns customers to continue being vigilant to avoid card skimming when using their cards at ATMs or when making payments in restaurants and retail stores,’ said SABRIC CEO Kalyani Pillay.
‘Card skimming is one of the threats in the card fraud environment which has contributed enormously to counterfeit card fraud.’
SABRIC figures reveal 1 281 hand-held skimming devices were seized since 2005, of which 129 were recovered last year.
‘This has highlighted the depth of the problem and we continuously warn bank customers to be wary of card skimmers and never to let their card out of their sight when performing transactions’ said Pillay.
Cards can be skimmed at ATMs or at points of sale.
SABRIC cautioned people to never to accept any assistance from strangers at the ATM and to shield the keypad when inserting pin numbers.
‘Bank customers who use of the internet to do their shopping should also make use of 3-D Secure products and websites that support them,’ said Pillay.
Visa and MasterCard SecureCode are authenticated by 3-D Secure, which offers an additional layer of security for online debit and credit card transactions.
‘When shopping online, only place orders with the card on a secure website and do not send e-mails that quote the card number, expiry date or CVV (card verification value) number,’ said Pillay.
‘We also urge the public to only use online merchants that conform to these secure standards.’
Security tips
· If you are disturbed or interfered with while doing a transaction at the ATM, it is possible that your card may be skimmed by being removed and replaced back into the ATM without your knowledge. Cancel the transaction and immediately report the incident using your bank’s toll-free stop card line number, which is displayed on all ATMs as well as on the back of your bank card.
· Know what your ATM looks like so you are able to identify any foreign objects attached to it.
· Never let the card out of your sight when making payments.
· If you have debit, cheque and credit cards, do not choose the same PIN number for all of them. This will ensure that, if you lose one card, the others will still be safe.
· Keep your transaction slips and check them against your statement to spot any suspicious transactions and query them immediately.
