PODCAST | Online fraud: what it is and how people can avoid falling victim to it

Online fraud is the focus in this edition of the Business Day Spotlight.

Our host Mudiwa Gavaza is joined by Christo Snyman, national director of forensic services at audit firm, Mazars. Snyman is also vice-president at the International Association of Financial Crime Investigators’ Western Cape chapter.

The discussion mainly focuses on giving practical guidelines and steps on mitigating risk, and ensuring that corporates, small businesses and individuals have an adequate response plan in place in case of online fraud.

Snyman details a number of popular fraud tactics and scams used by criminals in SA and around the world.

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He says one common source of fraud around the world is online dating apps. People meet and start chatting using such platforms. As familiarity grows, victims may start being asked to send amounts of money for “emergencies”, an investment in a business venture or other manufactured reasons. With trust built, some people may send funds to help “someone in need” only to find out that they have been swindled when it’s too late.

In most cases, such funds are difficult to recover as the transfers are made knowingly and with consent by victims. This is different from hack where criminal steal money from a bank account for instance, Snyman points out.

He also explains the progress being made by law enforcement to bring fraudsters to justice, while detailing the many challenges that are still faced by the establishment.

Topics of discussion include: an explanation of how certain kinds of fraud are perpetrated online; popular tactics used by fraudsters to defraud people and businesses; guidelines for mitigating the risk fraud; and challenges faced in prosecuting cases of online fraud.

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• Business Day Spotlight is a MultimediaLIVE production.