Cape Town - The Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) has flagged visible signs of an increase of fraudulent activity in the Western Cape, with a 133% increase in the number of fraud incidents, which is 8% of the country’s total fraud incidents reported last year.
The statistics, released on Tuesday, compare the first five months of this year to the same period last year, and show that over the past year South Africans have faced increased risk when it comes to becoming a victim of fraud.
SAFPS chief executive Manie van Schalkwyk said consumers faced with a significant cycle of high inflation were looking for ways to make ends meet, which made them increasingly vulnerable to scams and schemes carried out by highly motivated, highly skilled fraud syndicates.
“The interesting statistic for the SAFPS is the increase in the Western Cape. There are visible signs of an increase of fraudulent activity in this province.”
He said Gauteng, the economic hub of the country, was the province with the highest fraud stats, with 62% of the country’s total fraud incidents, and the number of fraud incidents that the province recorded this year increased by 117% over last year.
Meanwhile, KwaZulu-Natal contributed 18% of the fraud incidents this year, with the SAFPS survey showing that the number of incidents reported this year increased by 106% over those recorded last year.
The survey showed some of the biggest frauds involved impersonation, which Van Schalkwyk said had always been a significant crime in South Africa as fraudsters preyed on their victims through phishing, smishing and vishing.
Phishing is the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.
Vishing involves fraudulent phone calls that induce people to reveal personal information, and smishing is the term used for fraudulent text messages meant to trick people into revealing data.
Van Schalkwyk said: "Impersonation increased by 264% for the first five months of the year compared with last year, and could be linked to recent major data breaches.”
He said the various data breaches had all highlighted the vulnerability of personal information, and how easily accessible it was to motivated criminals.
Cyber security expert Patrick Evans said cyber threats were increasing at a rate far greater than the industry was able to cope with.
He said small and medium enterprises were particularly vulnerable because the financial impact of falling victim to these security breaches could result in their total collapse.
Quoting the Accenture Cost of Cybercrime Study, Evans said 43% of cyberattacks were aimed at small businesses, and only 14% of these businesses were adequately prepared to defend themselves.