Bank SMS fraud a R2bn problem - De Vos

Added: 2026-05-28

[00:00:00]If you woke up this morning, checked your phone, and saw a text message from your bank, how certain would you be that it's actually from said bank? I mean, most of us think we're too smart to fall for a text scam or anything of that sort. We look for the typos, which is what we've always been accustomed to.

[00:00:18]Maybe the weird links that you just think it's too good to be true, or even a strange phone number. You just think, I don't know anybody from this number.

[00:00:26]But cyber security experts are warning about a terrifying new level of deception. The perfectly faked SMS. It looks basically identical to your bank's real chat thread. It arrives on your phone in the exact same chain as your legitimate alerts and it is then emptying bank accounts in a matter of minutes. The team at Venture Labs just published a groundbreaking expose detailing exactly how fraudsters are actually pulling this off and why traditional red flags no longer work.

[00:00:59]Joining us on how to protect our life savings is the author of this report.

[00:01:04]That's the CEO of Venture Labs, Durk Defos. Durk, thank you so much for the time. Really appreciate it. I mean when one takes a look at the story that was laid out here by yourselves and Patrick Laru Tabo Makubano of course not his real name as you laid out had been careful he knows all the signs and yet was still caught out what in the world is going on you just share with us >> well I mean who can blame uh in in this case T for for what happened um you you read the story and uh you think that you are immune from these or falling a victim because you're careful. Uh but these these stories happen um to uh to to the the the most weary and the the most skilled of us. It's it's it's a real problem. Um last year banking fraud um was uh a two a two billion uh uh rand problem. um just what we've done um as as Venture Labs, we've got a series of of of eight articles um dealing with different types of online fraud. Uh and um maybe then also what to do with it.

[00:02:19]It's running in in currency news at the moment.

[00:02:22]>> Yeah. And and and significant to highlight this because this is just happening all year round. This could happen to anybody at any point in time.

[00:02:30]In this case, 187,000 rand gone. And just one wonders how much is has already been gone just off of this scam. Uh overall, but to get this correct, the sender spoofed the bank's alpha numeric sender ID. Just explain that to us.

[00:02:50]>> Well, basically they're services which uh you can buy and they aren't particularly expensive either. I mean I think you the almost subs sub subscription services where uh bulk uh SMS um uh capability allows you to to do just that and uh in that way you insert yourself into the the thread uh that you have had with your bank and uh that gives you a level of comfort. You don't look more carefully and uh and and and off we are.

[00:03:21]>> My goodness. So they've basically bought the bulk SMS platform that is then used by the banks but doesn't necessarily go away from the bank. So the bank itself could actually still be using that very same uh bulk SMS line.

[00:03:36]>> No, it's a it's it what what what happens is that the the bank is is sharing the same kind of service where you can get these bulk SMSs which then insert themselves into your your thread.

[00:03:49]Ah okay. And I mean a situation like this one one asked themselves then how is is is is is it not a flaw then within SMS itself the the the messaging system that then needs to be fixed something that should have actually been looked into.

[00:04:06]>> Yes, absolutely. We've been um as the article says uh this the the the the cell phone companies could fix this um or this particular problem but they're not required to. So we um we we we stuck with this. It is a weakness in the system. It's got nothing to do with the banks in that case. Obviously it's got to do with the cell phone networks.

[00:04:29]>> So what happens? I mean how do we fix it? How do we how do we secure ourselves? How do we safeguard ourselves against something uh like this? What are what are the new tellt tell signs and ways for us to protect ourselves here?

[00:04:43]>> Look, my view and and I think this is the best advice I can I can give because you know these these fraud this this fraud happens um uh across a number of of of platforms. We've we've spoken about the SMS fraud in this instance.

[00:05:00]But what you've got to understand is that the systems that we have in place are pretty secure. What is often happening is uh uh fraudsters are manipulating the customers. So the the the effort has moved away from actual you know the details and there are number of these different frauds and we can go through all of them. This is just one of them. um where you uh essentially uh fraudsters have understood how to manipulate us as the users or the bank customers here um and in TA's case probably some anxiety something's wrong with the bank you uh we all know that fraud is happening could my account be subject to fraud so essentially on those on that basis you are um uh you know you try to be a good customer but you've got to be very very very careful um with this I mean and some of these these fraud cases are undetectable. The cases that we've had and one as I said and I emphasize this is that people who we are dealing with are not um are not the types that you would think that would be uh that would be subject to fraud. We're talking about financial managers um technical capable people and so on. Yeah.

[00:06:21]>> Wow. And I and I think that's probably the most shocking >> we start to understand ourselves.

[00:06:25]>> Yeah.

[00:06:26]>> We we understand I'm operating under some sort of pressure. Is there a time pressure? Is there some anxiety that I'm dealing with over here? Because essentially when you are working online especially with your with your bank you you've got a heightened level of anxiety and that's where you become easier to manipulate.

[00:06:46]>> I think that's the scary part actually Durk that um it it's pretty much happening. We used to think as well that it was more the more vulnerable um amongst our communities that would perhaps be faced with something like this, but it's now happening across the board, which which means that it opens up so many other avenues um of of loss as well. Is there something that perhaps is being looked at here by the banks to try and uh petition or at least get some sort of conversations going with the cell phone providers with SMS itself um to to try and fix this to try and find a way that would make this go away as best as possible?

[00:07:26]>> Sure. Um a couple of things you know probably do need to happen when you've got a systemic problem and effectively this is a systemic problem. You can't blame in this case Taboo for um having it's not his problem alone. It's a systemic problem although he suffered the loss. Um the the system the systemic nature of this means that we need systemic solutions and that's just exactly what what you've suggested. The cell phone companies have the ability to provide some level of security here. Um but they are not the they they're not they're not banks. So the the the loss is at the bank. The cell phone companies provide connectivity easy connectivity as as as best as you know that's what they're doing. They're selling airtime or they're selling um data and uh they don't have an obligation to to the banks. the banks could um well what what is happening in in in in the UK which is uh I think a very good example of where we ought to go is that the banks are starting to become strictly liable because >> in England has sort of understood that this is a systemic problem. the tax surface is actually the customer and um we we we we need to be able to have an independent uh evidence of what happened in a particular sort of fraud scam, you know, we need to be able to have go beyond logs. We need an independent um immutable rail which shows what happens.

[00:09:02]But in England, what they have done is they've made um uh banks more liable for these kinds of losses.

[00:09:09]>> Yeah.

[00:09:10]>> Yeah.

[00:09:10]>> Yeah. That might uh >> therefore therefore the the banks themselves are incentivized to do something with it because otherwise they bear the loss.

[00:09:19]>> Yeah. Exactly. That incentivization might actually be uh what works in this case. um for for just for 10 seconds very quickly. Durk, we're running this poll question here and I wanted to ask for your advice to anybody on this who perhaps thinks that they are very careful that they are actually looking after their their finances. Uh they're not going to fall to a bank scam cuz 68% of the people in the poll question we've asked this morning, can you spot a fake uh bank message from scammers, have said that, well, they're careful.

[00:09:56]Yes, I I want to make the point here that this is exactly the problem because people are careful and they have a level of confidence. Uh and that is that confidence I think is is misplaced.

[00:10:08]>> Everybody who I've dealt with can't believe in fact that that that the scam happened. So we we really I'm I'm I I think people are confident and overconfident and and therefore that's one of the weaknesses.

[00:10:23]>> Wow. That's actually even more interesting and scary as well. Duros, thank you so much for joining us