Using SMS notifications that banks send to their customers to commit fraud is “extremely uncommon”, according to the SA Banking Risk Information Centre.<\/p>\n
“A crime of this nature is extremely uncommon and it is through the co-operation of cellular phone providers that it was detected and addressed speedily,” Sabric’s head of commercial crime Susan Coetsee said in a statement.<\/p>\n
She was responding to an article in The Citizen detailing the arrest of two people, one an engineer at Vodacom, last week.<\/p>\n
They allegedly intercepted text messages sent by banks to their customers’ cellphones to obtain bank account numbers, which they would then use to withdraw money from accounts.<\/p>\n
Police also confiscated Absa, Nedbank, Standard Bank and FNB cards from the alleged fraudsters. All the victims were Vodacom network users.<\/p>\n
Police believed the pair worked with bank employees who told them which accounts to target.<\/p>\n
In one instance they allegedly opened a trust account at Nedbank and got away with R2.4 million.<\/p>\n
Sabric was confident that the country’s banking systems were secure.<\/p>\n