Beware of ‘trash divers’

Ladies were armed with tips to protect themselves from identity theft and banking fraud at the Abundance ladies morning on Friday.
Former banking industry employee Sharon Carmichael gave the women invaluable knowledge on ‘trash diving’ and ATM fraud. She spoke of the importance of not being distracted while using an ATM or when paying with a debit card at a retailer.
“I could go on all day about things that you should look out for but if you get distracted then all your knowledge will amount to nothing if you create an opportunity for the fraudster to take advantage of you,” said Carmichael.
She also warned them against using stand alone ATMs like the ones often found at petrol stations because they have a higher risk of being tampered with.
Carmichael said criminals even go as far as to intercept mails with cheques and use fake identity documents to cash them.
“With the tax season nearing an end we are going to see a rise in tax fraud schemes. These might be done by sending the victim a text message or email saying their account has been debited with a huge amount and SARS request that the amount be refunded because it was debited into a wrong account.”
She warned against responding to these messages and instructed them to contact their bank instead.
Carmichael also stressed the importance of looking after IDs or letters containing identity numbers because these could be used to make fake IDs.
“Fraudsters hire people to dig through municipal trash to find documents with people’s ID numbers so that they could create fake IDs,” she said.
She said people who have lost their IDs must register with the South African Fraud Prevention Service to ensure their IDs are not used fraudulently.
The women were also treated to  a talk on interior and gardening design.