Rekord article: Make your home less accessible for robbers

Dear Community,

The following article was published in the Rekord recently.

We attach for your information.

Incident: Smash & Grab: Lenchen bridge across Alert Steel

Dear community:

We witnessed a brazen smash and grab, 10:30 am on Saturday morning on the Lenchen street bridge towards Old Johannesburg Road.

Note the time, 10:30 am, in peak traffic with loads of people on the road.

As we had a member right behind the targeted vehicle, we managed to respond within seconds calling the incident into the JOC, who activated numerous patrols to assist.

The suspects were chased, however, due to them using the N1 as a getaway with cars picking them up, it was a battle lost! Frustrating again!

Be aware when you are driving on any road. Every robot is a potential hotspot and thinking that you are safe because it is peak traffic is a lie to yourself!

Look around you before you stop at a stop sign or robot. Be aware of people walking around your car, even if they sell or beg for money!

Be vigilant and keep looking after each other!

Alert: SIM Swap Fraud

ID theft =   to get hold of different pieces of personal and financial information from various sources, posing to be who you are not, to result in financial gain at the cost of the victim.  That’s why I hate if even banks try to verify identity over the phone by asking my ID number, which I have to give in such a manner that everyone in the vicinity can hear and start building up a profile …

Fraudsters first steal your bank password(s) via Phishing and then they do a bit of social engineering to get your cell number. Once they have the cell number it is easy to get a SIM swap. All of this is simply just too easy… L … and the saddest part is you have zero recourse: The loss is yours!

Social engineering …. The fraudster can even be calling the bank pretending to be you; to get the missing information; or calling you pretending to be the bank; give many personal information to make you at ease … approaching colleagues, your secretary, etc. …  or any way they can think of. Unfortunately it does work in some cases … L …

http://mybroadband.co.za/news/security/76904-shocking-reality-about-sim-swap-fraud-and-money-lost.html

Quoting out of the above …

“Eddie Moyce, Chief Customer Experience Officer at MTN SA, said that there is a misplaced belief that mobile network operators are liable when it comes to SIM swap fraud. Moyce explained that a fraudster needs the Internet banking details to commit this crime. While it is known that all the cases involve fraudulent SIM swaps to intercept a customer’s Random Verification Number (RVN), there is still uncertainty as to how fraudsters gain access to the victim’s Internet banking details (hence username and password).

ABSA has previously indicated that phishing attacks are usually behind leaked Internet banking usernames and passwords. However, many of the SIM swap victims deny that they fall prey to a phishing attack. These are some of the scenarios as reported by SIM swap victims:

–The victim did a SIM swap, and soon afterwards their SIM died and money is moved out of their Internet banking account
–The victim may have been a phishing victim, and their SIM then went dead and money is stolen using their Internet banking details
–The victim reports that there was no requested SIM swap and they did not fall victim to any phishing scam. Their SIM suddenly went dead, and money is stolen from their account using Internet banking”.

Someone will always get through the best of precautions; security with internet bank transactions, as with the houses we stay in, is a layer thing. Be aware that ill-intenders can at this moment be on the look-out, waiting for you to make that that one wrong step, to fill in the last piece of the puzzle to make you the next victim of some sort of identity fraud …