by AKANI CHAUKE
JOHANNESBURG, (CAJ News) – THE rise in manipulation fraud in South Africa could result in more regulation unless banks act.
This trend follows the country’s Rapid Payments Programme (RPP) arriving early 2023, which will enable instant payments.
There is a real imperative for banks and consumers to get ahead of imposters, who pretend to be from South Africa Revenue Service (SARS), the Post Office, banks or cell phone providers and manipulate people into making payments.
Gerhard Oosthuizen, Chief Technology Officer at Entersekt, noted the trend.
He said they were working with South African banks and their partners to address the issue.
“We are currently exploring a number of different ways to address this including looking at ways to detect dubious actions,” Oosthuizen said.
He said South African banks are currently implementing Entersekt’s rapid payment system and having it exposed to additional risk at the outset could impact its uptake.
The official said when it comes to the RPP, there are a number of potential pitfalls.
“Fortunately, the work already done by the UK banks and their regulator give us good insight into how to tackle the challenges ahead,” Oosthuizen said.
“It is also comforting that the collaborative work by the local banks and their focus on building strong fraud prevention into the system from the start should also give local consumers some confidence when the RPP goes live.”
Entersekt believes South African needs a collaborative, industry response to fraud.
“We are working together to find ways to consolidate data and get ahead of the fraudsters by learning from other markets, and applying our own South African technology to solve this problem,” Oosthuizen said.
– CAJ News