South Africans defrauded of their credit card scores

[img_assist|nid=8403|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=66|height=100] The drastic increase of credit card fraud in South Africa within the last three years resulted in millions of rand lost yearly by the consumers.

In order to steal scores of South Africans, scammers made online orders of credit card skimming devices from China which were imported later for their criminal plans.

With the skimming device, a cigarette lighter size instrument, fraudsters read data from the magnetic strip on the back of bank cards. The number of credit cards that may be scanned reaches 2000.

“It’s an offence just to be in possession of this device and therefore we want people to be aware of it,” says Captain Louis Helberg.

The penalty for possessing the device may be up to about five years in prison.