Paarl police again warns the public to beware of giving confidential personal banking details telephonically to strangers who simply request them.
The station’s spokesperson, Captain Louise du Plessis, says increasing incidents have been reported where so-called “bank personnel” telephonically prey on their victims.
“In some instances, the fraudsters would read back the victim’s own credit card account number. This makes the victim feel comfortable enough that it is indeed their bank calling them, only to be defrauded of thousands of rands from their bank accounts.”
Du Plessis says the caller would typically inform the victim they had picked up fraudulent activities on the account and to block the account or reverse the fraudulent transaction they require the account number and CVV (three-digit number) on the back of the card to finalise the process.
“The public is urged not to provide this information telephonically, but either to stop the card via internet banking, call the bank’s toll free number to stop the card or by going directly to the bank itself,” she concluded.
