Christopher Gwere – Head of Risk, Stanbic Bank
With Batswana increasingly making use of paperless money options such as credit and debit cards, the importance of bank card safety has proven more necessary than ever. Stanbic Bank has recently come out to advise the public on the importance of staying vigilant and alert about one’s spending habits and card transactions to ensure effective money management, taking precautionary measures to ensure the safety of their customers. The Bank advised on the need for Batswana to ensure they monitor their banking transactions, be it through the use of a bank card in person at ATMs, POS or online.
“There are a number of measures that can be taken to ensure the security of one’s funds when using bank cards. Things as simple as not sharing your details or PINs, being more alert when withdrawing cash at an ATM and making use of services such as SMS alerts to ensure that you are immediately notified of any transactions which are going through your account,” said Christopher Gwere, Head of Risk – Stanbic Bank Botswana.
“In addition, as an extra precaution to ensure the safety of our valued customers, all Stanbic Bank ATMs nationwide have been fitted with anti-skimming devices, metallic card slots embedded with the Stanbic Bank logo to replace the previous plastic card slots. This is simply an extra precaution to ensure the safety of our customers’ cards will not be compromised.”
ATM Card Skimming occurs when thieves attach devices to an ATM to steal cardholders’ card data, including the PIN number. They use the stolen information to produce fake cards in order to loot cardholders’ accounts. The anti-skimming device and additional software, functions through a simple mechanism of randomly moving the card with a slight stop-start vibrating motion as the card moves into the card reader, as well as on the way out. The Bank advises ATM users not to be alarmed by this functionality and attempt to pull out their cards when this happens, but to allow for the card to insert and eject in that order, noting that the anti-skimming mechanism functions are used to protect them.
“One must not be complacent about safety simply because a problem has not presented itself as yet, but, rather, endeavor to be prepared to ensure a problem does not arise. A sense of watchfulness is important across the board when it comes to your money. We warn our customers and the public out there to remain vigilant and alert.
As fraudsters seek new ways of fraud, we as a bank always strive to stay a step ahead and take any and all precautions to ensure the safety of our customers, ranging from educating them on safety tips to implementing any security mechanisms that will be useful to them,” said Mr Gwere.
Throughout all banking transactions, the Bank has reminded the public to keep all their log-in details and PINs secret, and to never provide personal details such as PIN or account details via e-mail or on any links within e-mails. It is strongly recommended to make use of services offered by banks which enable customers to better manage and monitor their money, making clear the ease and convenience of such features for customer’s own financial well-being and security.
