Top scams today

At 58-eight we keep an eye out for scams that are being used on people. Protect yourself against fraudsters with the knowledge here. We update this post often, so bookmark it today.

The Inheritance Scam.

This is an old but still very common scam. You will receive an official

looking letter informing you that you have been named as the

beneficiary in a will for a very large amount of money.

You will have to stand by to receive more details on how to make your claim. Next you will be told that you need the assistance of a lawyer / attorney / solicitor or agent to process the claim which is in a foreign country. The scammers are very convincing and will probably phone you to confirm everything. Eventually you will have to pay a large amount of money to “facilitate” the transaction. Needless to say, once you have made the payment you will never again see the inheritance or the scammers.

Money paid into your account – reversal scam.

This is a sophisticated scam where you receive an SMS that looks like a bank SMS confirming that an amount has been paid into your account.

A few minutes later you will receive a call allegedly from your bank to say that one of their customers has accidentally transferred money into your account and they need you to authorise the reversal. In order to do this, you must read them back the OTP that you will shortly receive from the bank.

This is a complete scam, and the OTP is being used to remove money, your money, from your account. All banks have processes to reverse accidental transactions and no bank will ever ask you to read out an OTP for any reason whatsoever.

If the bank calls you about any transaction it is always better to call the bank yourself, or better still make use of the bank’s secure communications where available on their app.

The Protection software scam

This scam involves the scamster posing as a bank official calling you to help you secure your machine from fraudsters.

They will talk you through installing some software (usually TeamViewer but others are used) and then they ask you to log in to your banking.

The scammer will tell you this is normal and that you will receive some one-time pins to reverse fraudulent transactions in a minute. Of course, the OTP’s are really to steal your money! No bank will call you to install software and they will never ask you for an OTP. Beware, these scammers are professionals and will be very convincing.

The online relationship scam.

This scam involves the scammer building up a relationship with you, usually on online dating platforms They are extremely sophisticated and will convince you that they are a real person that is falling for you. The scam then takes one of two forms:

· They will be coming to meet with you and at the last minute there will be a financial crisis and they will ask you to send money to help.

· They will send you a gift by courier. After a bit a letter allegedly from the courier company or SARS will arrive requiring payment for excise. Once you have paid the money you will never see them or the money again.

Some of these scammers are really good and will tap you more than once. Beware of anyone who you are building a relationship with if they ask you for money without even ever having met you in the flesh. At the very least make sure that you have at least met the person by video chat before you even think about “helping them out”.

Find out more about the latest scams here:

https://www.fic.gov.za/Documents/TYPOLOGIES%20-%20September%202018.pdf

---