PUBLIC CAUTIONED AGAINST CYBER FRAUD
Written by: Nokulunga Mkize
Investigative Journalist Devi Sankaree Govender, hosted the ZA Central Registry (ZACR) conference aimed at raising awareness on Cyber scams at the Durban iWeek Conference yesterday.
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) specialists from around the country, together with Govender educated iWeek attendees about cyber fraud. The annual event was held between 4th to 7th September.
The session was to help promote caution to the public about internet fraud and how to identify fake internet websites.
According to Govender, Carteblanche a journalism investigative programme, received 52 domain notifications this year mid-August.
“Domain names are replicated, beware of those registered for fraud purposes,” warned Govender.
ZACR CEO, Lucky Masilela, said that scammers create fake websites to mislead unsuspecting victims.
“They make victims believe they are not being manipulated. Scammers usually target business owners that can afford to spend a Million Rand, they will approach you on the internet or email,” said Masilela.
Masilela added that South Africa has had the highest number of internet fraud and about 64 fraudulent websites were taken down.
Andrew Fischer, Cyber Security representative, advised attendees to not open email attachments from senders they do not know, particularly if they offer services they did not request.
“As a cyber company we get a lot of complains, saying that we are not assisting enough. There is a lot of people that worked with the hoax, people should not fall for cyber fraud,” said Fischer.
Fischer also said that the internet makes it easier to commit crime. People must be resourced on how to deal with cyber scammers, education and awareness is important.
The ZACR team also warned the attendees that Cyber criminals are continually devising new ways to trick people into divulging information, such as Bank account PIN. Real companies will never ask people to divulge their banking details in a communication sent via post, email or sms. Any information shall be sent to a client via the company’s official website.
*Caption: Some of the speakers at the conference of Cyber Fraud.
