‘Significant’ increase in fraud in SA

According to the organisation’s statistics for 2020, fraud in Gauteng has increased by 120%.

It has also increased by a whopping 161% in the Eastern Cape.

SAFPS CEO Manie van Schalkwyk says there were increases in every province, with the exception of Limpopo.

He believes most employees became vulnerable to fraud when they started working from home in March.

“2020 was a year of major disruption, as many employees were told that they had to work from home. The problem with this is that employees are now conducting their work, and in some cases sending sensitive information, across servers that do not have the same level of security as the servers at their normal place of business.

"The fact that there is a significant increase in victim listings could be because of an increase in data breaches."

Van Schalkwyk says impersonation fraud has increased by 337%.

“This is extremely concerning. Impersonation fraud is the act of a criminal impersonating another person by stealing their identity and then open accounts in their name. The fraudster has details of the victim and trying to take over account.  

“The credit provider will ask the questions normally asked to the account holder. Because of data breaches, this information is available to the fraudster making it easier to take over the account.”

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