While some online banking crimes – like vehicle asset finance scams – decreased last year, there was a worrying 36% increase in reported incidents of banking app fraud, and a 23% surge in explosive ATM attacks.

The annual crime statistics report for 2022 from Sabric – the South African Banking Risk Information Centre – has outlined the financial fraud and security challenges facing the banking industry, cataloguing a wide range of crimes including contact crime, digital crime, app fraud and card fraud. The report was published on Tuesday.

In terms of digital crime, 2022 saw a surge of 36% in incidents of banking app fraud. Fraudsters employed a variety of tactics, including social engineering, exploiting data vulnerabilities and stealing login credentials. “Vishing”, where scammers impersonate bank officials to trick victims into revealing sensitive data like one-time Pins, is also on the rise.

From 2021 to 2022, ATM explosive attacks increased by 23% despite the expanded use by the industry of dye-stain technology. In several cases, the perpetrators still removed the cash stained by dyes meant to render such crime futile.

Financial losses per incident in online banking fraud climbed, too, by 9% year on year.

A notable 39% decrease in robberies of people waiting in queues at branches to deposit money is attributed to the successful arrest of suspects in specific regions.

Encouragingly, the number of reported mobile banking fraud incidents saw a 9% reduction in 2022, while Sim-swap fraud declined, too.

Vishing

A 17.6% reduction in fraudulent applications for vehicle asset finance in 2022 was driven by the effectiveness of robust fraud detection systems implemented by banks.

Fraud encompassing debit and credit cards saw an 18.4% decrease overall. Card-not-present fraud, despite accounting for the largest portion of card fraud, registered a decrease in incidents, with scammers resorting to vishing tactics to obtain one-time Pins instead. – © 2023 NewsCentral Media