This weekend we woke up to the news that an unnamed fraudster had cloned a card issued to Nyaradzo Funeral Services. The thief had gone on to withdraw over $200 00 ZWL from the company’s account. We have also heard a lot of cases where individuals have fallen prey too. You can protect yourself by following the guidelines below.

Protect yourself from card cloning

To protect yourself from card cloning consider the following rules

Always keep the card within your sight when transacting
Swipe the card yourself
Only swipe on reputable machines from reputable organisations
Do not share your pin with anyone and make sure no one is looking when you enter your pin
Get a chipped card and ditch your magnetic strip card. If your bank doesn’t have chipped cards leave them.
Sign up for SMS alerts so that you are notified when there is a transaction on your card
Check your bank account regularly including via online banking
Obtain and scrutinise bank statements and do regular bank reconciliation statements
Use a banking app. Most banking apps have a way that allows you to quickly block your card
If you are an FBC Prepaid MasterCard you can keep the card in inactive mode until you need to use it
Make sure that that amount you paid (POS slip) matches the actual store receipt
Never ever forward or tell anyone the OTP that comes via SMS onto your phone it’s yours nomatter what anyone including a purported bank rep says. Even your bank doesn’t need that OTP which you are supposed to enter to authenticate transactions
For cards with chips and magnetic strips always insist that the store use the chip side of the card
The card number on the receipt must always match your actual card number if not report this to your bank immidiately
If you do not receive a transaction SMS on your phone or if it’s delayed report this to your bank and demand they fix it
Report unauthorised transactions immediately to your bank