StokvelEx advises: Don’t be a victim of a scam this holiday season

The festive season is upon us, the last quarter of the year where we look back and celebrate most of our new year’s resolution. Well it won’t be celebratory to many stokvels who fall victim of bank scamming and card cloning during the festive season.

Stokvels, makgotla, investment clubs and social clubs suffer from robbery, bank scamming and card cloning. Members of these groups are likely to celebrate a black Christmas due to being targets to criminals who continue to follow members of stokvels during the peak season after they conclude money transactions with commercial banks.

According to The South African Banking Risk Information Centre (SABRIC), the banking industry remains concerned with the number of bank clients that fall victim to cash robberies daily. These incidents increased by four per cent from 2015 to 2016, with 695 incidents reported thus far in 2017. Bank client cash losses for 2017 from January to June amounted to R21 million.

These statistics will continue to increase if stokvel members are not introduced to the latest banking technology such as internet banking and online budget applications. It is the banks’ mandate to ensure that their economic disruptive clients are taken care off, considering that stokvels contribute over R49b towards the South African economy. Financial institutions should always ensure that crimes such as card cloning and card fraud do not emerge or happen under their watch.

Grocery stokvels easily purchase consumables worth over R250 000, loaded in trucks for delivery and later to be equally shared by members. This is a staggering cash injection to the wholesaler; therefore, it is imperative that wholesalers protect stokvels and offer viable options of delivering goods to these Stokvels at a reasonable amount or incentivised transport.

‘We encourage Stokvels to be vigilant and prudent with their spending during the festive season and this starts with promotional activity such as Black Friday all the way to Christmas and New Year’s activity,’ said Eugene Mametse, StokvelEx Founder and Exhibitions Director.

Stokvels are the breadbasket of most families during the holiday season. The significant and meaningful participation of Stokvels in the mainstream economy is crucial in creating communities that are self-reliant.

Below are tips provided by a trusted financial institution from SABRIC:

Tips for Stokvel Groupings
•Refrain from making cash deposits of club members’ contributions on high-risk days (e.g. Monday after month end)
•Ensure persons depositing club cash contributions or making withdrawals are accompanied by another club member
•A stokvel savings club or burial society can arrange for members to deposit cash directly into the club’s account instead of collecting cash contributions
•Arrange for the club’s pay out to be electronically transferred into each club member’s personal account or accounts of their choice.
•Look at alternative ways of banking with commercial banks or wholesalers

Issued by:
Seven Colors Communications @7colorscomms