Gadget

Fraudsters cash in on ‘card-not-present’ online shopping

Restrictions on physical shopping activity during the COVID-19 crisis and increased online shopping in recent months has led to a surge in fraudsters targeting consumers through “card-not-present” shopping activity.

“The latest modus operandi is that criminals contact consumers to deceive them into willingly compromising their card details and One Time Pin (OTP),” says FNB Head of card fraud Senzo Nsibande. “In such cases, criminals will call pretending to be from your bank of choice, informing you that there’s been fraud detected on your account while offering help to reverse the transactions. They then ask you to read out the OTP that you have just received, which simply enables them to fraudulently purchase 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.”

He offers these tips to protect against such crimes:

“Online shopping continues to rise across the world and with COVID-19, the upward trend is likely to continue,” he says. “While we continue to encourage the use thereof, we advise consumers to familiarise themselves with the new ways that 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 an OTP or their card PIN for any reason.”

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