Credit card fraud cost South Africa R420 million in the past year and had increased 146 percent, Kalyani Pillay, the chief executive of the SA Banking Risk Information Centre, said yesterday.
It was estimated in 2006 that there were more than 25.5 million debit cards and 7.2 million credit cards in circulation in the country.
The amount of money spent using credit cards at point of sale devices rose 101 percent between 2004 and last year. The money spent using debit cards soared 547 percent in the same period.
Most of the fraud occurred in Gauteng, with criminals using lost or stolen cards. - Sapa