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Sabric warns of festive season scams

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 21 Oct 2014
Fraudsters routinely target bank customers over the festive season.
Fraudsters routinely target bank customers over the festive season.

The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) has urged bank customers to be on the lookout for resurfacing scams in the build-up to this year's festive season.

These include the deposit and refund scam and another that uses fraudulent requests to change bank account details.

In a statement released today, Sabric said the deposit and refund scam involves criminals ordering goods or services from a business or individual and then paying money into the victim's bank account, mostly by depositing a fraudulent cheque.

"Sometimes, proof of payment is fabricated to create the impression that the deposit was made in cash. Following this they send the 'proof of payment' to the business or individual and then the goods are released to the criminal," the statement read.

Alternatively, added Sabric, the scammers cancel the order and request an urgent refund of the funds made. The bank will then process the cheque and discover that it is fraudulent and then reverse the credit on the victim's bank account, or discover that no deposit was made at all. As a result, no funds are transferred into the victim's account and the victim loses both the monies and the goods.

Kalyani Pillay, Sabric CEO, said: "We want to warn customers to be vigilant during the festive season; especially around scams that promise you huge returns with minimal effort".

Sabric added that scammers are also duping customers by scammers telling them that certain suppliers have changed their banking details.

Meanwhile, the advance fee scam sees fraudsters extort funds from the victim with the promise of higher value in return - often using the names of bogus competitions.

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