South African banks are raising the alarm over a surge in fraudulent airline advertisements circulating on social media platforms, designed to trick users into granting criminals remote access to their banking apps, Cape town Etc reports.
Discovery Bank has issued urgent warnings to customers after detecting increasingly sophisticated phishing attacks disguised as tempting travel deals.
According to MyBroadBand, the scam begins with eye-catching ads offering unbelievable flight discounts. When potential victims click through, theyre directed to fake websites where fraudsters posing as travel agents convince them to download a malicious airline app. This app secretly grants scammers full remote control of the victims smartphone.
Once installed, victims are instructed to log into their banking apps while the fraudster monitors their activity through screen-sharing software. The screen goes blank momentarily while criminals initiate transactions, Discovery explained. By the time victims realize whats happening, multiple unauthorized payments have already been processed.
The South African Banking Risk Information Centre Sabric notes that these attacks exploit human psychology rather than technical vulnerabilities.