The Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (“SAFPS”) launched a consumer-focused fraud prevention tool called Yima, which means “stop” in Zulu and Xhosa,
Yima is dedicated to the prevention of scams and to detecting and understanding their impact on consumers and businesses alike.
This revolutionary platform will help us in our fight to put a stop to scams and:
- Engage and empower the consumer on all things related to fraud prevention.
- Create awareness about scams.
- Provide tools to help detect, prevent, investigate and analyse scams.
- Educate users and Banking employees about trends and the way scammers work.
- Provide members with a value-added service for their customers while creating awareness about fraud.
The introduction of YIMA will allow the SAFPS to be more visible to both consumers and businesses with regards to scams
Scams are one of the fastest-growing fraud types around the world: Based on incident volumes reported to SAFPS (Southern Africa Fraud Prevention Services) for 2022, the most popular scams in South Africa are Advance Fee Scams, Goods & Services Scams, Loan scams and Investment scams respectively, with the highest volumes of scams taking place in the third quarter of 2022.
There has been an 18% increase in the volume of scams in South Africa for 2022 compared to 2021. Advance fee/ Deposit scams made up 87% of all scams perpetrated and reported to SAFPS in 2022.
Globally only 7% of all scams perpetrated are reported to an official body (such as SAFPS), institution, or law enforcement. This grants scammers a wide berth to perpetrate scams undetected. South Africa is currently ranked as the 3rd fastest-growing country in Africa for scams, with Nigeria in 2nd place and Egypt in 1st place respectively.
It’s time to break the silence and put a stop to fraud.
Together let’s #BeatTheScam!