The restrictions in physical shopping activity since the start of the lockdown and consumers’ awareness about personal safety have increased the driver for online shopping in recent months.
In line with the upsurge, fraudsters have also increased their attempts to defraud consumers through Card Not Present shopping activity.
FNB head of card fraud Senzo Nsibande says: “The latest modus operandi is that criminals contact consumers to deceive them into willingly compromising their card details and one-time PIN (OTP).
“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 One Time PIN 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,” Nsibande Says.
“Online shopping continues to rise across the world and with Covid-19, the upward trend is likely to continue.
“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 a OTP or their card PIN for any reason,” he adds.