Author: Staff Writer / Source: Businesstech.co.za
South Africans have lost almost R4.5 billion to credit and debit card fraud since 2010, the latest fraud data from Sabric shows.
In 2016, gross losses due to credit card fraud increased by 13% to R374.4 million, up from R331.4 million recorded in 2015.
However, this was still significantly down from the R463.3 million lost in 2014. Since 2010, R2.49 billion has been lost to credit card fraud.
In 2016, 48.0% of all credit card gross fraud losses occurred inside South Africa in comparison with the 44.5% in 2015, Sabric said.
“SA-issued credit cards are frequently used by criminals in African countries such as Zimbabwe, Namibia, Botswana, Kenya and Lesotho,” the group said.
“Most of these transactions are fraudulent cash withdrawals at ATM’s. An increase is observed in Mauritius where fraudulent card-not-present (CNP) transactions are reported.
“This emerging trend could relate to the increase in merchants registering their businesses in other countries in order to circumvent rules applicable to South Africa.”
Looking at debit card fraud, in 2016 losses were up only 3.1% from 2015, totalling…
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