2010 may spur credit card fraud

Cape Town - The risk of credit card fraud could increase during the 2010 Soccer World Cup, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) warned on Thursday.

"The very fact that there will be more people in this country means that there will be more spending, there will be more economic activity taking place during that time," said Sabric chief executive officer Kalyani Pillay. "Obviously the opportunity will be greater and of course the association with risk will be greater."

Law enforcement agencies and the banks had done a thorough threat analysis and were working together to identify risks, she told a media briefing in Cape Town.

A number of counter-fraud initiatives had been put into place.

During the Confederations Cup earlier this year Sabric had monitored the situation and there had been no spike in credit card fraud.

"2010 is on a far larger scale than the Confederations Cup but I don't think we're going to be able to say yes, we think there will be spiking.

"All we can say is we've identified the risk and measures have been put into place," said Pillay.

A document had been printed in seven European and Arabic languages with fraud prevention tips for tourists coming into the country for 2010.

Government and the department of home affairs had allowed banks to hand out this document at all passport control counters at airports.

Pillay said this had worked successfully for the Confederations Cup and 66 000 copies had been distributed.

The document would also be printed in different African languages handed out at border posts to cater for those coming in from the rest of the continent.

- Sapa