CREDIT card fraud continued to hit the banking industry, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) said yesterday.
Sabric said the industry’s losses from credit card fraud for this year had increased 5%. This was still a significant downward trend in the growth rate of industry card fraud losses compared to the 30% increase of last year, said Sabric CEO Kalyani Pillay.
She said banks remained committed to raising the public’s awareness of industry efforts to mitigate bank card fraud. Most bank fraud losses involving South African-issued credit cards this year occurred inside the country, Pillay said. Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Western Cape accounted for 89% of the losses, she said. Fraud losses with South African-issued cards inside the country decreased 6%, while cross-border fraud increased 23%.
“Sabric attributes the decline in card fraud inside our borders to the decrease in certain card fraud types as a result of robust industry crime-prevention measures, including public awareness.
“The effect of the reach of chip and PIN technology on the abuse of lost and stolen cards is beginning to be noticed.”
This was further supported by the industry’s real-time crime risk management, which facilitated the immediate detection of, and response to, incidents of fraud at merchant level.
Pillay said counterfeit card fraud was the primary fraud loss category this year, having increased 22% to R144m .
“Most of the banking industry’s financial losses resulting from counterfeit card fraud occur within the borders of SA .
“Skimming of cards via hand-held skimming devices is still the main modus operandi to obtain information needed, to manufacture counterfeit cards.”
Pillay urged the public to follow their banks’ advice on safe banking, such as not letting cards out of sight during a transaction or when accepting assistance.