Banks and financial services providers are increasingly being cloned online by criminals, as website cloning scams proliferate in SA.
Cyber criminals stole over R740 million from unsuspecting users through digital banking fraud in 2022.
Panellists Lyndwill Clarke, head of the consumer education department at FSCA, and Ntshiki Maluleka, digital banking crime manager at Sabric, highlighted how cyber crime in SA has increased exponentially over the past few years. The economic downturn and high unemployment levels are among the factors contributing to more vulnerable people becoming victims.
“Recently we’ve put out a lot of warning messages about financial service providers that pretend to be legal when they are not. What criminals do is, for instance, create a Sanlam, Capitec or Old Mutual website that looks exactly like the legitimate one,” explained Clarke. According to Clarke, the FSCA receives complaints daily, from consumers who report they have lost a significant amount of funds due to a bogus financial services provider.“The big problem with falling for scams and fraudulent activities stems from lack of financial literacy – this is the missing link that results in people getting scammed. And it comes to a point where people don't know what they don't know.
He noted this was primarily attributed to the growing number of fraud cases related to banking applications and internet banking. “Here is a replica of a SARS website where they have included links of banks, and if you click on the spoofed link of the Absa and Standard Bank websites, the tell-tale sign is when we go to the address of the website, you realise it is definitely not real, but it is something that is purporting to be a Standard Bank website. These websites are designed in a way to harvest personal information and consumer banking information.
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