Following the launch of Safe Banking Campaign during November 2016 by the South African Banking Risk Information Center (SABRIC) in conjunction with the HAWKS and South African Police, three suspects have recently been arrested.
Members from the Commercial Crime Unit of the Hawks armed with replicas of gadgets believed to be used by criminals in compromising bank-card data visited the malls on an educational drive, interacting with the public and warning them about the ominous dangers of card fraud and scams like phishing and key-logging among others. The 1st campaign was carried out at the V&A Waterfront Mall on the 19th of November, followed by Somerset Mall on the 26th, Carnal Walk on the 3rd of December and lastly the 10th at Tiger valley Mall.
Whilst the campaign was going-on, members from the ATM task team kept a watchful eye on the known problematic ATMs.
Occurrences of banking fraud are a reality, the public is warned to take heed. In our recent cases; three female suspects; Sesethu Selepi (23), Faatimah Hartley (29) Yasmine Hamdulay (32) were arrested during December for conspiring to commit fraud and forgery.
Selepi is accused of having allegedly manipulated the method of payment Card Not Present (CNP) by purchasing airline tickets and hotel accommodation with compromised/stolen card data. The potential loss is estimated at over R 100 000.00, she was arrested on Wednesday the 7th of December near Sea Point, documentary proof containing card data bookings and deposits slips were seized. She has since appeared in the Cape Town Magistrate’s Court on Wednesday and was granted R3 000 bail matter has been postponed to 2017-02-13 pending further investigations.
Meanwhile, Hartley and Hamdulay are implicated in fraud and forgery which apparently occurred during 2014 where they allegedly conspired to commit fraud. The accused allegedly manipulated the Financial Institutions in applications for credit to obtain assets. It is alleged that they forged documentation to qualify for credit and manipulated their financial profiles with money laundering. ABSA, FNB and Wesbank granted credit and suffered an actual loss to the tune of almost R2-million. They were both arrested on Tuesday the 6th and appeared in the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court on Thursday 2016-12-15, bail has been set at R10 000 for each with strict conditions, the matter is to resume on 2017-02-10.
The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation is serious about combatting organised crime, more especially commercial crime hence we embarked on the educational drive aimed at empowering the general public to be aware of the heightened activities of criminals especially during the festive season.
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