By Takudzwa Mashumba
Tens of millions of Rands have been lost in South African banks after an ‘Unauthorized International Organization’ hacked card details of restaurant customers according to the reports by the Payments Association of South Africa.
The scheme was devised through a variant of the software virus known as Dexter most likely to have originated in Europe.
Reports say there isn’t even one bank that was not affected and David Volker PASA CEO said in a phone interview, “we detected higher volumes of fraud early in the new year,”
“These guys are quite clever at hiding their tracks because they go through multiple service providers, the syndicates could be anywhere in the world,'” Volker said.
“The syndicate probably loaded software intended to damage computer onto a server at restaurants and other food outlets before capturing data stored on magnetic strip of a bank card. It then produced its fraudulent or sold the data to a third party,” he added.
Standard Bank Africa biggest lender said it is aware of the fraud activity and is trying to limit its potential exposure. “The fraud affects it debit, credit and check card customers,” wrote Rick Linstrom in an email.
“Immediate and pro-active steps have been taken by Standard Bank and at industry level to identify and limit the extent of the exposure,” he added.
KFC one of the largest food outlet in South Africa security branch said, it has taken the matter seriously and was working in maintaining that the impact of the fraud activity to its customers remain minimal.
South Africa’s famous maker of Steers burger and Debonairs pizza, Famous Brands said of its 2,180 restaurants only two has been affected but the fraud activity according to a statement by the company spokesperson.
Card fraud has been on the rise in Africa’s biggest economy over the past years despite efforts to replace magnetic stripe cards with the more secure chip variation.
Comments
About Author
