Credit card and debit card fraud has increased by more than 20%, according to the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) CEO Nischal Mewalall.
Releasing its annual crime stats for 2019, Mewalall says the increase in credit card fraud must be viewed against the growth of the credit card payment ecosystem which has seen a rise in the number of credit card transactions processed by banks, coupled with increases in the number of cardholders and merchants.
The report notes that 66.6% of all fraud on SA issued credit cards took place on merchant devices in a foreign country. South African eCommerce merchants largely comply with 3D Secure whereas merchants abroad don’t use 3D Secure.
Other robberies
In 2019 associated robberies decreased by 2%. An associated robbery is a violent bank-related robbery of cash or a bank card committed against a bank client en route to, or from a bank branch, ATM or cash centre to make a deposit or withdrawal. Limpopo, Mpumalanga and the Western Cape showed the biggest decreases for these crimes.
ATM attacks decreased by 9%. The North West, Free State, Western Cape and Gauteng accounted for the greatest decreases in incidents.
Cash-in-transit robberies decreased by 16%. All provinces with the exception of KwaZulu-Natal and the Free State experienced incident decreases.
Overall gross losses on card transactions in South Africa amounted to R428.6m. This was a 2% decrease when compared to the previous year.
The counterfeiting of cards decreased by 44.8% for credit cards and 34.8% for debit cards.
SABRIC CEO Nischal Mewalall stated: “Collaboration is critical when it comes to combatting organised financial crime and SABRIC is well positioned to do just that, by leveraging the collective efforts of its members and stakeholders. These results show what’s possible.”
