Police in the province would like to urge members of the community to be careful when doing or asked to do online and cell phone banking transactions by unknown persons who at times pretend to be bank officials.
Incidents of online and cell phone banking are still being experienced at areas such as Brits, Rustenburg, Mahikeng and Klerksdorp. Preliminary investigation on reported cases have shown that consumers would respond to online sales advertisements and eventually be given account details to deposit the cash for their goods. However, after depositing cash, they will not receive goods as per agreement. The victims will discover that they have been defrauded when they try to call the cell phone of the advertisers which will be off.
In some of the cases, the consumers would receive calls requesting them to confirm their cell phone numbers or at least four digits thereof. Once that is done, they would then experience problems with their cell phones and ultimately compelled to switch them off. They would realise upon switching them on that their sim cards have been blocked. The suspects would then do sim swap without the victim’s consent and access their accounts.
Members of the community are hereby advised to apply the following safety tips as part of preventative measures.
•Be always on alert of people who lure you with good to be true stories and products that are sold from the internet.
•Do not believe promises of easy money.
•Do not use repeat passwords for anything involving sensitive personal information.
•Exercise caution while responding to online advertisements.