If you suspect that someone has stolen your identity, chances are that you’ve become one of a growing number of South Africans who have become victims of identity theft – and you need to act quickly to limit the damage.
The problem with identity theft is that victims typically only find out about the theft months later – by which time, someone can easily have obtained false lines of credit and racked up significant debt in the victim’s name. Here’s what you need to know on how to protect your identity.
Firstly, let’s talk about what criminals typically do with personal information?
Criminals use this type of information to contact you and trick you into disclosing your confidential details or to impersonate you.
They typically do this in a few ways:
- They convince you to click on a link in an SMS (smishing) or email (phishing) and share your confidential information.
- They try to trick you into downloading malware on your mobile device by clicking on a link or attachment in an email.
- They intercept or steal your bank statements, municipal bills, and other account statements.
- They call you (vishing) and pretend to be an employee from a reputable company and convince you to share your PINs, passwords, and other confidential details. They trawl through your social media profiles, collecting as much personal information as they can find.
What should you do?
- Start by keeping a lookout for SMS alerts from ID Hero on changes to your credit profile. These alerts are also displayed on your Splendi dashboard underneath the ID Hero logo.
- Be wary of companies contacting you via email, SMS, or email to confirm your personal information.
- Do not share your online PIN, online passwords, card PIN, card CVV number, OTP, and/or authentication messages with anyone.
- Choose strong passwords – include numbers, special characters, upper and lower case letters.
- When looking up the company website, make sure it is legitimate (check the URL).
- Be cautious of company names with web-based email addresses, e.g., @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, @gmail.com, @ymail.com.
Who should you contact if you suspect fraud?
If you suspect any suspicious behaviour or if you are in doubt immediately contact your bank, the company in question, and SAPS.Here are some key contact details to save:
- ABSA Fraud Hotline 0860 557 557
- FNB Fraud Hotline 0875 759 444
- Standard Bank Fraud Hotline 0800 020 600
- Nedbank Fraud Hotline 0800 110 929
- Capitec Bank Fraud Hotline 021 941 1377
- Discovery Bank Fraud Hotline 011 352 5910
- African Bank Fraud Hotline 0861 111 011
- Bidvest Bank 0860 11 11 7
