With the South African economy following the global trend of facing a massive downturn, fraudsters are taking advantage of the desperation of consumers to try and find ways to alleviate their economic situation.

Despite significant increases in key fraud tactics, the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) is intensifying its focus on being the custodian of fraud in the country and moving towards a proactive approach to combatting fraud.

This focus has resulted in creating a key platform which is increasing the savings the SAFPS provides consumers.

Significant savings

Statistics released by the SAFPS show that the number of fraud cases has increased significantly over the past three years. Some of the areas that have experienced pronounced increases have been impersonation fraud, forged documents, and money mules.

Despite this, the SAFPS has consistently been able to save massive amounts of money by combatting these increases. The SAFPS reported that industry savings by companies that make use of the SAFPS database increased by 86% to R4.4 billion; this increased by a further 48% or R2 billion in 2022. In 2023, these savings increased significantly in 2023 by 81% to R3.5 billion for the first 6 months of 2023.

Manie van Schalkwyk, CEO of the SAFPS, points out that education and the creation of key platforms, which shifts the friction from the consumer to fraudsters, are the main reasons why the SAFPS is able to achieve these savings.

An Empowerment Platform

Van Schalkwyk points out that the Yima platform has proven to be a very effective tool in the proactive fight against fraud.

"In response to the growing need for a proactive approach to fraud prevention, the SAFPS launched Yima. Yima is a fraud prevention platform that is a one-stop-shop for South Africans to report scams, secure their identity, and scan any website for vulnerabilities related to scams. They can also educate themselves on identifying a scam. These tools, free of charge, will enable consumers to surf the internet safely. While Yima does not prevent online transaction banking fraud, it allows consumers to shop online more confidently by ensuring that they are using a verified online banking website. Further, the education component of Yima allows consumers to go about their daily lives aware and informed about fraud. These are just some exciting elements South Africans can access through the site," says Van Schalkwyk.

A key element of the website is the ability to report a scam incident or any suspicious activity to the SAFPS. This suspicious activity includes a fake or suspect-looking online shopping website/portal and instances where the user has received phoney banking information. These reports will be collated and shared with law enforcement for investigation. A scams hotline is also available to report a fraud incident directly to participating banks, retailers, or insurance companies via a single number.

Additionally, Yima users will have access to the consumer products and services offered by the SAFPS, such as the Protective Registration, which offers protection against identity theft and impersonation.

The power of one number

Yima’s priority is to provide the consumer with support before and after they fall victim to fraud and scams. Van Schalkwyk points out that when a person becomes a victim of fraud and has to report this to the relevant authorities, they are emotionally traumatised and confused, unable to coherently deal with the stress that is related to becoming a fraud victim.

"One of the challenges of the past is that a fraud victim had to approach a number of different authorities to report the case and to begin the process of trying to address the situation. This was very stressful. That is no longer the case as fraud victims have now got access to the Yima scams hotline that will address this challenge," says Van Schalkwyk.

Users will only need to remember one number rather than search for each institution's fraud contact centres numbers one at a time when they must deal with a difficult situation.

Van Schalkwyk adds that the SAFPS has partnered with MTN and several key stakeholders to launch a hotline number to report fraud. "By dialling 083 123 SCAM (7226), victims of fraud will be directed via interactive voice response (IVR) to relevant authorities such as the South African Police Service (SAPS) as well as their bank or other registered credit providers to report the incident. This will simplify the process of reporting fraud cases and will hopefully alleviate some of the stress that victims of fraud experience," says Van Schalkwyk.

He adds that this is once again another example of how the SAFPS is changing the narrative when it comes to a proactive approach to combatting fraud and what the power of collaboration can contribute to fraud prevention. 

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ISSUED FOR AND ON BEHALF OF Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) BY:
LOLA LAZARUS
OF BULLION PR & COMMUNICATION
CELL:  083 271 5336
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SAFPS HELP-LINE:  011 867 2234