ATM scams – residents have had enough

ATM scams continue to plague the central business district… the latest one saw the victim tricked out of R1000 last week when a man grabbed the bank card from his hand at the ABSA ATM.

The thief quickly inserted the card into the ATM and pressed cancel several times before returning the card to the victim. Upon querying at the bank, it was discovered that R1000 had been withdrawn from his account.

Police say ATM scams are reported regularly in the town with at last three cases a week of all cases related to ATM scams – from fraud, card swapping and/or cloning.

A man who recently lost over R14 000, when his card was cloned while he was withdrawing money from an ABSA ATM on Victoria Street, said he received an alert on his phone that money had been taken from his account via the Capitec ATM in the Boulevard Centre.

“I went down to the police station to register a case. As it was a Saturday afternoon they could have been a delay on the case number registering on the system. When I informed Capitec they said to me they would investigate. But I never got my money back from them because they said I took too long to register a police case which I think is highly unfair.  I am now out of pocket and will take months to recover from this blow. We are clients at a bank and I was robbed and defrauded through no fault of my own. We expect our banks to protect our money.”

In a comment, Capitec told the Courier that they are not at liberty to discuss clients’ personal details.

According to the MoneySmart website you may not get your money back after an unauthorised transaction

Card cloning, ATM scam reaching plague like proportions

ATM scams continue to fleece members of the public

There is less chance of getting your money back from an unauthorised transaction if you:

• acted fraudulently
• didn’t keep your PIN or password secret
• unreasonably delayed telling your financial institution that your card was lost or stolen or that someone else may know your PIN or password
• accidentally left your card in an ATM.

However, even in these circumstances, the amount you are liable for is subject to certain caps.

Getting your money back after an unauthorised transaction

You are likely to get your money back if:

• a forged, expired, faulty or cancelled PIN/password or card was used
• the transaction was fraudulently made by an employee of your financial institution or merchant
• the transaction took place before you received your card, PIN or password
• a merchant incorrectly debited your account more than once
• the transaction occurred after you told your financial institution that your card was lost or stolen, or that someone else may know your PIN or password
• it’s clear that you haven’t contributed to the loss.

  The South African Banking Risk Information Centre has released the latest research on trends in bank card fraud on South Africa-issued cards, showing credit and debit card fraud losses amounted to about R779-million in 2017.

  According to Business Live , to the fraud statistics show the gross fraud losses incurred by the banks, consumers and merchants before the banks carry out an investigation to determine liability for the losses relating to card fraud. The report covers various categories of card fraud.

  Sabric CEO Kalyani Pillay says bank clients report incidences of fraud to their banks, which in turn investigate. Depending on the bank’s findings, a decision is made on who carries the loss, which could be the bank, the merchant or you, the consumer. Sabric does not collect data on losses other than those incurred by the banks, she says.

  You can be held liable for fraud on your account if the bank can prove you have compromised the security of your card or PIN.

  The Sabric report inexplicably does not cover the incidence of fraudsters obtaining access to a consumer’s online banking profile, which typically involves losses for the banks and consumers.

  The three most costly types of credit card fraud – those where the gross fraud losses to the bank were the highest – reported on by Sabric last year were: card-not-present fraud, counterfeit card fraud and lost and/or stolen card fraud.