The CEO of IT services firm security solutions firm, ESET Southern Africa, Carey van Vlaanderen, says while the promise of a bargain is enticing to consumers, cyber-criminals also take advantage of unsuspecting shoppers.Van Vlaanderen says, “The top 4 we see are phishing emails, WhatsApp and social media and also what we call tickets to nowhere, where in fact you are paying your money and of course when you go to either the game or to collect your tickets, it’s not valid.
“Similarly in WhatsApp scams, they will embed a link into either a WhatsApp chat or group and finally there is the social media scam. Again, what these guys do is offer an amazing deal where in fact it’s fake and you get absolutely nothing back.”Meanwhile, consumers are also warned to further tighten their belts, as theThe Reserve Bank has also lowered its economic growth expectations for the country this year from 1.9% to 1.8%.
The Reserve Bank Governor Lesetja Kganyago says growth for the fourth quarter is also expected to be depressed largely due to the effects of Eskom’s rolling blackouts.The bank’s Monetary Policy Committee’s decision takes the repo rate to 7% and the prime lending rate to 10.5 percent.“The forecast takes into account, lower commodity prices, higher inflation and interest rates.