• Standard Bank has highlighted that as cybersecurity has improved, scammers are going back to tried and trusted attack methods.
• This includes making spam calls posing as a bank or investor and getting targets to unknowingly part ways with their money.
• While Standard Bank has protections in place via its app, there is no 100 percent guarantee that any protection method will work all of the time.

Have you been getting a lot of questionable phone calls from numbers that you can’t call back? It’s not just you, scammers are seemingly returning to the tried and tested method of using the phone as their hunting ground.

This is because, according to Standard Bank, cybersecurity is getting better. Because of this, scammers need to trick users into handing over sensitive information or outright getting them to pay them.

The bank reports that one of the latest techniques involves criminals telling a customer that their money is unsafe and they need to move it to a different account for safekeeping. Another scam asks customers to transfer funds to an investment account with promises of high returns. Of course, there is no investment account.

“The bank will never call to ask you to move your money to an account that you do not know about. If you are going to invest your hard-earned money, verify the details of the investment company that you are dealing with. Check that they are registered with the Financial Services Conduct Authority,” warns Dr Belinda Rathogwa, head of digital and ecommerce at Standard Bank.

“These individuals encourage victims not to share details about the fraudulent transaction with their banks or loved ones, making it difficult to detect the fraud early. This social engineering tactic leaves little recourse for consumers, so that many are unable to recover all of their lost funds and most don’t recover any of their money, even with their bank’s assistance,” adds Rathogwa

Standard Bank recently launched a security feature on its mobile app that alerts customers when it detects potential phone and SMS fraud is happening. Unfortunately, cybercriminals and scammers are a wily bunch so even this protection may not be 100 percent effective.

As such its best to keep the following in mind as regards unsolicited emails, SMS or phone calls claiming to be from a bank.

• If you receive a call from someone claiming to be from your bank’s fraud department, remember that the bank will never ask you to share your personal information over the phone. If the call sounds suspicious, hang up and call your bank’s fraud line.
• Never share your one-time PIN (OTP) with anyone. Your bank will never ask for your digital banking credentials, including OTPs, passwords or PINs, over the phone.
• Avoid connecting to public WiFi networks to do your banking. Standard Bank clients can use the Mobile Banking App even when they don’t have mobile data.
• Use your fingerprint or facial recognition to secure your device and to sign in to your banking app for added security.

We also advise that if you suspect you have answered a scam call, to hang up and call the institution they claim to be calling from directly. We’ve employed this technique several times and we highly recommend adding it to your tool kit.

Most importantly however, inform your older family members about scams. They are often seen as easy/soft targets for scammers and cybercriminals so advise them to exercise caution.

“Our data shows that a growing number of older clients make use of our App. Any additional security features on the App can therefore play a big role by protecting them,” adds Rathogwa.

Apps such as TrueCaller can also help to filter out potential spam but they can also report false positives for numbers that may look like spam but aren’t.

Be overly cautious out there folks.