South Africa recorded a 600% improve in fraud instances between 2018 and 2022.
In line with statistics from the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS), there was a 600% improve in incidents of fraud reported by their members in 2022 when in comparison with 2018.
With a purpose to deal with this rising drawback of fraud, the SAFPS has launched a fraud prevention protocol referred to as Yima, which seeks to teach the broader public who could also be prone to fraudsters.
In line with Nazia Karrim, head of product growth on the SAFPS, Yima will set up a proactive method to combating fraud and scams.
“In response to the rising want for a proactive method to fraud prevention, the SAFPS is creating a product referred to as Yima. As soon as launched, the product’s web site shall be a one-stop-shop for South Africans to report scams, safe their id, and scan any web site for vulnerabilities associated to scams. They may even be capable to educate themselves on figuring out a rip-off,” says Karrim in a press release. “These instruments will allow customers to browse cyberspace extra confidently and go about their every day lives conscious and knowledgeable. These are just a few thrilling parts South Africans can entry by means of the positioning.”
The principle aspect of the web site would be the skill to report a rip-off incident or any suspicious exercise to the SAFPS. This suspicious exercise features a faux or suspect-looking on-line procuring web site/portal and cases the place the consumer has obtained phoney banking info.
These studies shall be collated and shared with regulation enforcement for investigation. Customers may even be supplied with a scams hotline to report a fraud incident on to their banks, retailers or insurance coverage corporations through a single quantity. Customers will solely want to recollect one quantity quite than seek for every establishment’s contact numbers on-line.
Moreover, Yima customers could have entry to the buyer services provided by the SAFPS.
On prime of the meteoric rise in fraud instances, in a report final month, INTERPOL additionally gave South Africa the undesirable title of the cybercrime hub of Africa, with the nation recording over 230 million incidents.