WENDY KNOWLER | Is it fraud, or just your bank changing things up?

Many of us are a little paranoid about being targeted by fraudsters, especially when it comes to our banking activities — and understandably so.

Recently Standard Bank freaked out quite a few of its clients by prompting them, after they had logged into their accounts online, to enter their username, password and one-time PIN again.

Vicki is among the bank’s customers who queried this with me.

“I have been using Standard Bank online banking almost since its inception,” she said. “Suddenly in mid-February, a pop-up card appeared after login with username, password and OTP, looking very amateur.

“With no prior warning or information about why this is being requested, I truly believed it to be a hacker’s work.

“I bank with several banks internationally that always say, ‘We will never ask you for your PIN’.”

Bronwyn said: “I find it appalling that no communication, reasoning or how-to has been provided to customers. When I eventually did get hold of someone, they told me to use the banking app to circumvent the issue. I don’t use apps.”

I took up the case with Standard Bank.

Their response boils down to: “It’s perfectly fine as long as you’re on our site. But we strongly recommend that clients do not enter their username, password and card number on third-party sites.

“Our internet banking platform is secured by layers of security controls designed to control access. These controls are applied based on the risk profile of each client.

“The request to capture card and PIN is an existing control that applies when clients register or change aspects of their internet banking profile. We cannot disclose in further detail, due to the nature of the security protocols we have in place.”

And here’s the important bit: “We encourage clients to remain vigilant and pay specific attention to the website they are using. We recommend going to www.standardbank.co.za to access our internet banking. That way, clients can be assured that they are interacting with the correct website.”

Last week some Capitec Bank clients got spooked when confronted by a new-looking app.

Lungie is one of them. “I needed to load a beneficiary on my app and found a very different looking app,” she said. “I was not comfortable to log in, in case it was a scam, so I looked on the bank website to find some formal communication but found nothing — and no e-mail from them either.”

“Don’t worry, everything is same-same,” said Capitec on its Twitter feed about its app’s “fresh new look” — but Lungie’s not into social media. A notification on its website’s homepage would have helped.

Shoe shopping online? Don’t fall for this scam

Samantha e-mailed me to say: “I was scammed by a website masquerading as the international brand Hunter Boots.

“I placed the order in December and have received no further confirmation and when I tried to contact them I found that they have no contact details.

“I can still see my order ‘processing’ so have proof that they did take the order.”

She said she reported the site to the international brand, “but I see the website is still going”.

“From what I have read, it has already changed domains once. I understand that there is slim chance of recovering my money but I am most irritated that they are still scamming blissfully unaware shoppers,” Samantha said.

Here’s the crux: “The website url starts out as huntercapetown.com and then as you enter the website, it changes to huntecapetown.com.”

Clearly she didn’t see that when she was hunting for those very desirable boots. And they are all advertised at about R1,000 less than Hunter boots sell for via legitimate channels. That should always be a massive red flag.

Remember, whatever you are looking to buy, always check the url ... cloned sites are rife.

Booking cancellations — good to know:

If you are forced to cancel a booking, for holiday accommodation, for example, at the last minute, the establishment is entitled to refuse to refund you, unless they replaced your booking and didn’t lose out financially.

The Consumer Protection Act (CPA) does allow consumers to cancel advance bookings for a refund, but it also allows service providers to impose a cancellation penalty — from a very small one if you cancel soon after booking, to a very large one if you cancel on the day of the booking.

But here’s the thing: that changes if you had to cancel because you were hospitalised.

The CPA states: “A supplier who ... accepts a reservation or booking to supply services on a later date may impose a reasonable charge for cancellation reservation, [but] may not impose any cancellation fee in respect of a booking if the consumer is unable to honour [it] because of the death or hospitalisation of the person for whom, or for whose benefit the booking, reservation or order was made.”

• GET IN TOUCH: You can contact Wendy Knowler for advice with your consumer issues via e-mail: consumer@knowler.co.za or on Twitter: @wendyknowler.