A credit card fraud expert has said the introduction of chip and PIN payments has cut down on counterfeit fraud, but criminals are not standing still.
Susan Potgieter, general manager of the commercial crime office at Sabric, the Banking Association of South Africa-owned agency tackling credit card fraud, was speaking at Cards and Payments Africa 2013, in Sandton, Johannesburg, this afternoon.
In 2012, credit and debit card fraud cost the economy ZAR900 million (US$98 million), but this was down 12 per cent on 2011.
The headline figure, however, saw counterfeit fraud reduce by 40 per cent year-on-year, and Potgieter said this was down to chip and PIN.
She said: “This is the impact of chip and PIN and this is really good news.
“There is no argument that a PIN number is greater security than a signature. But because of that rollout, criminals haven’t gone and got a day job. They have changed their MO.
“There is no ways if you are having to deal with 80,000 incidents in one month, it has to be organised crime. There is a whole new ball game out there and we all have a role to play.”
There were also revelations as to where and on what the illegally acquired money is spent.
The biggest spend in Nigeria on South Africa-issued credit cards was on purchasing visas.
Potgieter said: “I have been to Lagos a number of times and the visa application is hell. So I don’t know how the criminals are doing it.”
