Johannesburg – The number of ATM bombings increased by 11% in 2021 – with a 17% increase in losses, says a report released Monday by the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC).
“Incidents where explosives were used increased by 15%, whereas the number of angle grinder incidents decreased by 11%, from 47 in 2020 to 42 incidents in 2021,” the report said.
SABRIC said it was concerned by the rise in the number of ATM attacks, despite the technology and security measures deployed to make them safer.
“‘Although the industry recorded an 8% decrease in associated robbery incidents overall in 2021, branch-before-deposit incidents increased by 56% with financial losses in the same category increasing by 85%,” the report said.
SABRIC said the report on annual crime stats for 2021 was released on behalf of the banking industry.
The report found that banking on digital platforms (on app, online, and over the telephone) now exceeds all other transaction channels in South Africa and is also the safest.
From 2020 to 2021, digital banking fraud incidents decreased by 18% overall.
The report also found the biggest decline in fraud incidents related to mobile banking.
However, while the number of incidents declined, there was a 45% increase in the total gross losses in digital banking in the reporting period.
SABRIC CEO Nischal Mewalall said: “Digital banking products are far safer than in-person banking and enable people to transact from anywhere safely.
“But criminals have adjusted their social engineering tactics to leverage your data from social media and data leaks, making their efforts to manipulate customers difficult to spot.”
For the first time, SABRIC said its annual crime stats publication features application fraud via vehicle and assets, home loans, and unsecured fraud (current, cheque, and savings accounts, personal and business loans). Vehicle and asset finance fraud increased by 53% in 2021.
“With regards to home loans, only 12% of reported fraudulent mortgage loan applications were successful while unsecured loans saw a 4.4% decrease from 2020 to 2021,” said the report.
“With regards to card fraud in 2021, card-not-present (CNP) fraud with a debit card contributed to 55.3% of all card fraud.”
CNP fraud increased by 31.5% when compared to 2020 and remained a concern as transactions with online merchants increased.
Mewalall warned that online shopping can be unsafe because fake websites are being used to defraud “clients” or harvest their credit card data.
He adds that in certain instances scammers have even delivered inferior products to create the impression that the website was legitimate.
“We are making inroads in combating banking and financial crime in South Africa,” said Mewalall.
“We have trained more than 900 SAPS and NPA personnel on banking products and related evidence.
“Working closely with the DPCI, we have also established task teams across provinces to aggressively address prioritised banking crime threats.”
Full report: https://www.sabric.co.za/media/5dlnhnyj/sabric-crime-stats-2021_fa.pdf
