WATCH: SA mobile users should expect renewed unauthorised micro-billing attacks
JOHANNESBURG – South African mobile users should expect renewed unauthorised micro-billing attacks as overseas-based fraudsters look to the country’s 90 million plus mobile connections with growing interest, cloud communications software and solutions provider IMImobile warned on Thursday.
The Wireless Application Service Providers’ Association of South Africa (WASPA) has worked hard to create a local mobile ecosystem where cellular users feel confident transacting with providers of mobile content and applications, but the first line of defence against mobile fraud should be the users themselves, IMIMobile SA chief creative and operations officer Devon Meerholz said.
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Meerholz said mobile users should minimise the financial damage caused by unauthorised billing attempts emanating from overseas-based criminal syndicates and should consider switching to prepaid cellular service to prevent unexpected postpaid mobile bills at month-end.
“Mobile users should become aware of what’s happening on your mobile device at all times by switching on app push notifications, signing up for SMS billing notifications from your network operator and checking your messaging inboxes for alerts at least once a day,” he said.
“If you must link a bank card to your chosen app stores, make sure it’s a credit or debit card with either a very low credit limit or with none at all. You could consider reserving a low-cost, zero credit limit bank account for mobile-based purchases.”
He said when downloading mobile apps from Android or Apple app stores, mobile users should carefully read what permissions were required and look out for particularly suspicious permissions such as those requiring access to one’s mobile contacts.
Source: iol.co.za
