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• Fraud is Up, but Consumer Costs and Resolution Hours Drop – The number of identity fraud incidents increased by 12 percent over 2008, reaching the highest level since the survey started in 2003. Javelin believes this may be due to the economic downturn, when historically, higher rates of fraud occur. However, during 2009 there was a drop in fraud costs per victim and a decrease in time to resolution, thanks to increased consumer awareness, assistance provided by financial institutions, consumer support organizations, and law enforcement.
• Increase in New Account Fraud – Identity fraud that resulted from fraudsters opening new accounts with stolen information increased in 2009. The number of fraudulent new credit card accounts increased to 39 percent of all identity fraud victims, up from 33 percent in 2008. New online accounts opened fraudulently more than doubled over the previous year, and the number of new e-mail payment accounts increased 12 percent. This year for the first time, the survey asked about new mobile phone account fraud and 29 percent of victims reported new mobile phone accounts were fraudulently opened.
• Data Breaches Across Various Industries Continue to Compromise Personal Information – Identification most likely to be compromised in a data breach continues to be Full Name (63 percent) and Physical Address (37 percent). With a year-over-year increase of 4 percent, Health Insurance Information is increasingly targeted. The percentage of Social Security numbers compromised decreased to 32 percent from 38 percent in 2008.
• Fraudsters Target Existing Credit Cards – 75 percent of existing card fraud incidents came from credit cards, an increase of 12 percent over 2008. In contrast, existing debit card fraud incidents decreased two percent and represented 33 percent of total existing card fraud in 2009.
• Proactive Consumers are Catching Thieves – Half of all victims filed a police report, resulting in more arrests and convictions. Victims became more vigilant in reporting identity fraud, and reported this resulted in an arrest rate twice last year’s rate, and a prosecution rate that tripled compared to 2008.  These findings indicate greater success using information provided by consumers, banks and credit card providers to detect, catch and convict criminals.
• 18 to 24 Year Olds are Slowest to Detect Fraud – Millennials (consumers aged 18 to 24 years old) take nearly twice as many days to detect fraud, compared to other age groups, and thus are fraud victims for longer periods of time. Millennials were found to be the least likely group to monitor accounts regularly and take advantage of monitoring programs offered by financial institutions. However, Millennials were the most likely group to take action such as installing anti-malware software when they discover fraud.
• Small Business Should Exercise Caution – Small business owners suffered identity fraud at one-and-a-half times the rate of other adults. This appears to be due to the fact that small office / home office business owners use personal accounts when making business transactions and make more transactions than typical adults.

Today, fraud protection and credit cards is a very important matter of discussion related to merchant accounts.  You hear about the stories associated with lost or stolen credit cards.  Also having your identity stolen and later discover you had charges not made by you is a very scary situation.

There is no one solution that prevents fraud. It takes an assortment of ways to fight it.  Protection comes from knowledge and knowing the latest methods impacting the market. Researching issues listed below will help determine what your business can do to safeguard your fraud risk. Having the knowledge is an important step towards fighting fraud.

Keep an eye on people that:

1.Buy large amounts of merchandise without worrying about size, color, or price.
2.Don’t ask recommendations or questions on big dollar purchases.
3.Make an effort to distract or give you the bums rush during a sale.
4.Perform purchases and quickly leave the store, but then come back later and buy more merchandise.
5.Make large purchases just after the store's opening, or as the store is closing.
This is just a sample of how fraud occurs on your account.  There are others to consider, but these are the most obvious.

PRLog (Press Release) – Sep 20, 2010 – IMSofPA.com (Media, PA) - PRLog.org

A Cape Town based company has launched an online service and is claiming to have 'replaced' ACCSSA. Not only is this claim fraudulent, it is also completely untrue... ACCSSA is alive and kicking. Furthermore, this company is claiming to have access to our secure defaulter database. This once again is completely untrue. Any data captured on ACCSSA remains only available to fellow ACCSSA subscribers. No other party has access to our database. "Should this company (which we will anonymous at this stage) continue to make false and potentially  harmful statements, legal steps may be taken to expose this company". - ACCSSA Legal

On Sunday 20 December 2010 a middle-aged black gentleman by the name of Mr Chirst Armstrong, with a Mali passport and drivers license, attempted to steal a Mercedes C180 Compressor from the Hertz Sandton Hilton Branch.

Mr Armstrong presented his Mali drivers license and passport and 2 credit cards to Hertz. After examining the documents, the Rental Supervisor became suspicious and contacted Mr Mark Raubenheimer, the Hertz National Risk Manager, who in turn contacted ACCSSA to verify the credit cards. It was found that both credit cards, although found to be “valid” through the conventional methods used to verify credit cards, were false in that both credit cards’ numbers did not correspond with the issuing bank, as printed on the card.

Please be aware of a guest by the name of Mr Khetha Blessed Nyandeni – ID number 690621 5345 085. He has made reservations for accommodation and boardroom use at a couple of Gauteng City Lodge hotels, however payments are not forthcoming. He books through a Cape Town company called Anchorage Conferencing. The numbers provided on their letterheads and his cellphone numbers are never answered. He might make the reservation under the name of a Dr Lindiwe Zondi – who is apparently his facilitator during the training. Please do not accommodate him. If he does attempt to check in please try and obtain as much information as possible in order that we can use this to follow up on outstanding monies owed. -  ANNELIE BARKEMA, tsi (Tourism Safety Initiative)

Cape Town Tourism manager Sheryl Ozinsky has warned hotels that bilking is booming after a sleazy conman left a trail of hapless hoteliers with thousands in unpaid bills.  Ozinsky confirmed an increase in complaints from hotels and guest houses of bilking - not paying bills - in recent months. "Somebody should do an investigation to expose how easy it is to leave hotels without paying, to alert the industry to this increasingly serious problem," Ozinsky said. Police say bilkers are helped by poor quality or badly positioned hotel cameras and victims who don't report the crime. Several hotel and guest house managers said the well-spoken man identifies himself as Garth Verdal.

He flits from hotel to hotel producing what he claims is a press identification card. But one alleged victim peered closer and saw that it was just a newspaper bill. He has allegedly struck a string of hotels and guest houses in Sea Point and the southern suburbs. Three weeks ago, the tall, middle-aged man with glasses stayed at the Little Scotia guest house in Rondebosch. Manager Nikki du Plooy was suspicious after he flashed his dodgy "press card", so she insisted on cash up front. But next morning he allegedly left early with the room key and without settling his substantial telephone bill. The guest house has laid a fraud charge against Verdal. The telephone calls he made, according to the guest house's Telkom bill, were to an escort agency and, surprisingly, to the Sea Point police and several hotels, many of which also claim they were conned by Verdal. A senior manager at the R480-a-night Ritz Inn hotel in Sea Point said: "We know Mr Verdal very well indeed. He is banned from here unless he pays cash in full up front and gives us a substantial deposit to cover extras including furniture, and pays for items he did not pay for on past visits." A spokesperson at the Cape Gardens Hotel said Verdal had tried to leave without paying some months ago. But the hotel was eventually paid through a third party who owed Verdal cash. Formule 1 hotel on the Foreshore said they had banned Verdal after he paid for and stayed one night. "We were warned about him and he behaved strangely," said a hotel spokesperson. "We told him we were full just to get rid of him. He is not welcome here." The Ritz Inn is owed R250 000 by guests or travel agents who stayed in the last six months. One well-dressed , well-spoken scamster left a winelands estate hotel last month with room service debts of some R400 after fraudulently signing his name Bill King, making fun of staff who admitted they didn't know what the word bilking meant. Bilkers often offer to pay in cash for one night to gain the establishment's confidence. The next day they say they will stay longer and will settle the bill when they check out. They then run off without paying for the extra days, room service, drinks, meals, phone calls and other extras. Or they claim they are just going to the bank and then don't return. "They are always very smooth and convincing," said chairperson of the 200-member Guest House Association of South Africa Fred Kop. He warned members not to be embarrassed about demanding deposits. "It's business. Because of this bilking problem, we recently changed our code of conduct to advise members to make absolutely clear their payment policy before the guest checks in. We suggest a 50 percent deposit on booking and the balance as they check in. "There is also a lot of credit-card fraud which is not technically bilking, but still a serious problem for small hotels." Police captain Rod Beer advised businesses who are caught to promptly call the police. But he urged caution about making a citizen's arrest or confronting alleged bilkers.
 "The person could be armed, or could press charges if anything goes wrong or you don't follow the Criminal Procedure Act." Michael Parnell, speaking for the Mount Nelson Hotel and National Hotel Association, said the problem was probably mostly confined to smaller establishments, especially those without credit card online swipe facilities. "Most of our guests' bookings are pre-paid by tour operators. The few walk-in guests we get are expected to pay or provide some form of guarantee such as a credit card number when they check in."  -  Simon Farrell - IOL - 19 April 2009

Cape Town - Five people, four of them waitresses at a Cape Town International Airport restaurant, have been arrested following a tip-off about credit card skimming, police said on Wednesday. National spokesperson Captain Dennis Adriao said the four, aged from 28 to 33, were arrested at a Spur outlet at the airport on Friday evening and had already appeared in court. The arrest, by the commercial crimes unit and airport police, followed a tip-off from ABSA's fraud unit. Police found a "state-of-the-art" skimming device on one of the women. They had been able to link it to fraudulent withdrawals from four patrons' accounts totalling about R40 000. However it was likely that more people would come forward when they realised they had been fleeced, Adriao said. Those arrests were followed by that of a fifth person, a waiter at an upmarket Sea Point restaurant, over the weekend. The arrest was linked to the same device, he said. The waitresses were from Gugulethu and Nyanga on the Cape Flats, while the man from Philippi. Adriao said it was too early in the investigation to say whether they were working for a larger syndicate, or operating merely as a group. He warned people never to let their credit cards out of their sight, and to be "extra cautious" about who they handed them to. He said the skimming device confiscated from the waitresses could hold the details of up to 500 cards. It could be used to not only read cards, but clone them as well. Possession of the device was in itself illegal, he said. - SAPA

Haden Searles, Chairperson - Dbn North & Umhlanga CPF (Sectors 1-7)

The use of card skimmers and cloning devices has dramatically increased lately.  The devices are mainly employed by organised criminal syndicates and are rarely used by individual criminals working on their own.  These incidents can only start growing in the run up to the soccer world cup.  Please note that the new generation of card skimmers / cloners are actually smaller than the card itself, making it very easy for the suspect to swipe your card while you are distracted by signing the authorisation slip. It only takes a fraction of a second to do and your card has been cloned.  Please pay very careful attention to where your card is at all times!!

Once your card has legitimately been swiped by the cashier, immediately take your card back into your possession.  There is no actual need for the cashier to keep hold of it, other than to verify the signature (which most don't actually bother to do).  If the cashier does actually request to see the signature, then you can show him/her the signature strip.  At least the card will now be under your control and this will cut down the chances of a criminal distracting you and skimming the card.  If you are at a restaurant, always request for a table top portable pay point to be brought to your table and if they don't have this facility, then ALWAYS follow the waitron to the actual pay point.  Do not trust anybody; it may end up costing you, literally!

The Paddock in KZN, has just released the following cautionary notice:

"We just had a bad experience with a man by the name of Raymond Corazzo who claims he owns a company by the name of Hot Tuna. He left owing our company a lot of money and stole items out the flat when he left. He is blond and in his 50’s. He drives a Silver Mazda, registration number NUR 28878, with a surf board attached to the roof. We opened a case against him but the police obviously do not want to be bothered by "small" cases like this. So please be on the lookout, he is looking for accommodation in our area claiming he is from New Zealand and is waiting to go back. He even threatened some of our staff....”

Credit card fraud within the Namibian tourism sector appears to be ongoing according to reports in The Namibian this week. Last year (October 20) TravelHub reported that the Federation of Namibian Tourism Associations cautioned that there had been several reports by foreign tourists of credit card irregularities. It is believed that tourists are being specifically targeted. The fraud involves the use of scanning machines to copy card information. The machine is described as a small, black, handheld device. Tourists are advised to not let their cards out of their sight and if possible, to scan the card themselves.

Bank card scams that target wealthy visitors staying in luxury hotels and guest houses, have been uncovered. The scams have been discovered in the Western Cape and are expected to hit Johannesburg soon, if they haven’t already done so. According to a Sunday Newspaper, Senior Superintendant Kishor Harri, acting head of the Western Cape Commercial Crime branch, said police believed syndicates were paying hotel staff for information on foreign guests. Harri said police had arrested three suspects found with card-skimming devices which were used to capture data off the magnetic strip of a bank card. They then use the information for online purchases. - Caxton

Suspects were seen parked in Weltevreden Street in a red Astra, reg CEV24949, displaying extremely suspicious behaviour and were reported to the CID. They entered the Mount Nelson property through Kloof Street entrance and ordered 3 Jack Daniels in the lounge. One suspect proceeded to walk around the ground floor interior of the premises, while the other two suspects returned to the vehicle after making payment in cash for drinks. The 3rd suspect proceeded into the Oasis outlet. They were monitored at all times. All of the suspects were extremely nervous with the suspect in the red shirt displaying extremely aggressive behaviour. Please note that none of the gentlemen in the abovementioned summary of events, committed any criminal offence. Justin Sterrenberg, Security Manager, Mount Nelson Hotel.

Please be on the lookout for the following person: Wanted for theft of minibar items from Cape Grace on Wednesday 2008/12/10 at about 20h30. Described as a Coloured female, about 25-28 years and possibly 6-7 months pregnant with dark brown hair and red highlights. Her Modus Operandi is as follows: Dropped at hotel entrance. Asked taxi driver to wait and then enters looking for the guest rooms. Rang several doorbells to see which rooms were occupied and struck up conversation with any persons answering. After selecting a room, where no one answered, she requested a room attendant to open "her room" and proceeded to clear out room contents. We were fortunate in that it was an unoccupied room, she selected. She then left in the waiting taxi. Please contact Inspector Patrick Swinnen at Table Bay SAPS on 021 403 1009/11, with information regarding her identity or whereabouts.

A man has appeared in court charged with staying at a lodge fraudulently. It is alleged that Samson Budeli claimed he was a doctor and gave a fraudulent letter from the Limpopo health department to Croco Lodge in Muldersdrift, stating that the department would be responsible for payment of his stay. He paid the lodge R11 000 with a cheque which bounced. After his arrest, it was revealed that he was a wanted fraudster. He was remanded in custody. – Citizen Reporter. If only they were ACCSSA Subscribers…….