“If you are a member of a cash savings (stokvel) club, advise the members of these tips to guard against being the victim of cash robberies and cyber crimes,” urges Lizzy Arumugan, SAPS Corporate Communications officer.

Tips to avoid stokvel robberies

First, refrain from making cash deposits on high-risk days, such as Monday after month-end.

Second, ensure that persons depositing cash contributions or making withdrawals are accompanied by another club member.

Third, a stokvel, savings club or burial society can arrange for members to deposit cash directly into the club’s account instead of collecting cash contributions.

Lastly, arrange for payouts to be electronically transferred into each club member’s account of their choice.

Cyber crime

Cyber crime is a fast-growing area of crime.

More and more criminals are exploiting the speed, convenience and anonymity of the internet to commit a diverse range of criminal activities that know no boundaries, either physical or virtual.

These crimes can be divided into the following three broad areas:

1. Attacks against computer hardware and software such as botnets, malware and network intrusion.
2. Financial crimes and corruption, such as online fraud, penetration of online financial services and phishing.
3. Abuse in the form of grooming or ‘sexploitation’, especially crime against children.

Prevention tips

• Use strong passwords: Use different ID/password combinations for different accounts and avoid writing them down. Make the passwords more complicated by combining letters, numbers and special characters (a minimum of 10 characters in total), and change them regularly.
• Secure your computer by activating your firewall: Firewalls are the first line of cyber defence. They block connections to unknown or bogus sites and will keep out a number of types of viruses and hackers.
• Use anti-virus/malware software: This prevents viruses from infecting your computer by installing and regularly updating anti-virus software. It also blocks spyware attacks.

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