Online shopping fraud increases
Johannesburg – Restrictions in physical shopping and awareness on personal safety since the Covid-19 lockdown have increased online shopping; and fraudsters have increased their attempts to defraud consumers through Card Not Present shopping activity.
FNB head of card fraud Senzo Nsibande says in the latest modus operandi criminals contact consumers to deceive them into compromising their card details and one-time PIN (OTP).
“Criminals call pretending to be from your bank, informing you that fraud has been detected on your account; while offering help to reverse the transactions. They then ask you to read out the One Time PIN that you have just received, which enables them to buy goods using your card details online.
Most people unknowingly read out their OTP and, as a result, fall victim to fraud. An OTP is a dynamic number generated by your bank to you to authenticate transactions when shopping online,” Nsibande says.
He adds that online shopping continues to rise and with the Covid-19 pandemic the trend is likely to continue.
“While we continue to encourage the use thereof, we advise consumers to familiarise themselves with the new ways criminals are using to defraud unsuspecting people. More importantly, we urge consumers to always protect their personal information. For our customers, we remind them that FNB will never request their private information such as a OTP or their card PIN for any reason,” Nsibande adds.
