Beware cellphone smishing

Only the cellphone number that is registered with the financial institution can be used to access banking services and its main security feature is the cellphone banking PIN. There are a few safety precautions:

• PIN should not be a series of numbers in sequence i.e. 12345
  
• PIN should never be stored on your cellphone
  
• Never disclose your PIN to anyone, including banking staff. No bank should ever ask you to divulge your PIN
  
• Select a new PIN at regular intervals to decrease the risk of your PIN number being compromised

Smishing

Smishing is a new scam whereby customers are tricked into exposing information via SMS:

• Fraudsters forward a random SMS and wait for a response
  
• The SMS requests information promptly with obscure threat ie ‘the account is not working properly' or ‘someone has tried to access your account'
  
• Never respond to the telephone number that is provided in the SMS - contact your bank immediately
  
• Never divulge personal information via SMS.
  
• Save the Cellphone Banking helpdesk number as a contact number on your cellphone eg FNB is 0861 313 210
  
• If you suspect your banking safety has been compromised, contact the bank's fraud team

Phishing

Phishing is a scam designed to obtain the necessary information in order to gain access to your banking accounts. The scam artist entices you to disclose confidential personal data such as bank and credit card account numbers, passwords/PINs and the like, by convincing you that they are genuinely communicating directly from the bank.

The customer receives a phishing e-mail message or pop-up window that includes official-looking bank logos and other identifying information taken directly from the bank's website. These e-mails usually include web links that encourage you to disclose your personal details such as your PIN and password by replying to the mail or by offering you links to a site that requests your personal identification details.

• Never access your account via a link or a saved page - rather type in the website address of your bank
  
• Immediately contact your bank should you suspect any fraudulent activity on your account
  
• Don't use public internet facilities, like hotels, internet cafes, and any terminal that may not be secure for online banking

SIM Swaps

A customer's network operator offers SIM swaps to allow customers to use their original cellphone number should their SIM card get lost. However, if you no longer have access to your network, contact your operator to make sure that a SIM swap has not been done to your number. If such a swap has occurred, contact your bank to ensure that the cellphone number is blocked on its system and contact its fraud team.

Change of details

Update your cellphone number and cellphone banking profile frequently at your nearest branch or via the institutions' cellphone banking help desk. You will first need to go through a verification process, for your safety, before any of your details can be updated.

In the unfortunate event that a customer's account is breached, our bank offers its customers a full money back guarantee, provided the customer has followed the necessary security checks and notified it timeously of the breach.