By: Natasha Archary
Standard Bank warns customers of latest scams targeting clients where fraudsters lure people into providing personal information.
Over the weekend the bank sent out text notifications to clients alerting them not to share their one-time pins (OTP) with anyone who appears to be calling from the bank.
“Alert! Standard Bank will never request your OTP, not even the fraud department. If you receive a request to provide your OTP, immediately end the interaction and contact the bank to report. Never share your OTP with anyone.”
Online banking scams have increased during the pandemic with new methods of scamming people out of their money emerging every day. Most involve luring people to provide confidential information via email, SMS, over the phone, by clicking a link (malware) or remote access.
While financial institutions are constantly updating their systems to avoid their clients from falling victim to such scams, the bank has urged their clients to be proactive and guard themselves. The bank warns customers of latest scams involving holiday offers, fake goods and fake vehicle deals.
A number of people have fallen for a “holiday offer” with cheap accommodation. Preying on South African’s who want to score a good deal, the scam calls for people to pay for the holiday in full to get a remarkable discount.
Once the money is paid, the clients learn that they cannot make further arrangements as the “financial agent” cannot be traced.
The South African Banking Risk Information Centre has warned people that any offer that seems too good to be true, usually is.
Standard Bank has picked up on three scams that are becoming more common:
1. Fake holiday deal scams
2. Fake goods scam
3. Fake vehicles scam
Avoid the following:
- Any offer that requires you to make an immediate payment
- You win a prize in a competition you never entered
- Given a limited time to confirm your details in order to claim the prize
- Contacted via a cellphone number or free-to-use email account such as Gmail, Hotmail etc
- Win an extreme amount of money and all you have to do to claim is provide your banking details
- You’re asked to follow a link
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