Card cloning at toll gates in South Africa – How to avoid it

Motorists have been issued several warnings over the past few months regarding a worrying increase in fraudulent activities at toll gates.

One of the most concerning trends is a rise in card cloning, which has become so prevalent that one of South Africa’s major banks has disabled debit card swipe transactions at toll plazas.

According to Richard Frost, Head of Technology and Innovation at Armata Cyber Security, this type of fraud is a severe issue that has cost citizens more than R3 billion as a result of criminals stealing banking information.

The good news, however, is that there is a simple way to greatly reduce the risk of someone cloning your card, which is to use tap-to-pay and other contactless methods that do not require physically inserting the card into a machine.

Toll gates – the new target for criminals

Toll gates have become a new hotspot for criminal activity because of the sheer number of people passing through them each day.

For example, it is estimated that the tolls set up along the N3 between Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal process more than 2,000 cars every hour, meaning that thieves can access far more bank cards than other fraud methods.

These crimes can often fly under the radar, too, as smart criminals will not extract huge sums of money but rather siphon small amounts that will often get lost in a person’s other purchases, said Frost.

Card cloning is typically done through the use of overlay skimmers and wireless devices that can copy a bank card’s details, allowing a criminal to access an individual’s accounts and even forge a duplicate card to make transactions with.

It is a serious problem for private motorists and financial institutions, as travellers are left paying for someone else’s expenses, while banks are left with the administrative headache of verifying and reimbursing victims for unapproved payments.

To counteract this problem, several plazas are rolling out tap-and-go payment solutions as a way to avoid swipe transactions where the card has to make physical contact with the machine, increasing the risk of its information being stolen.

The N3 and N4 introduced tap-and-go in November 2024 using a pilot system introduced by FNB in partnership with Visa, but other sites managed by Sanral will still be accepting magstripe swipe payments until May 2025.

Nedbank, meanwhile, disabled debit card swipe transactions at toll gates after issuing a notice a warning to clients of “ongoing debit card fraud.”

However, it’s important to understand that, while tap-and-go is much safer than swiping, it is not a perfect solution and is still vulnerable when it comes into close proximity with a scanner.

In order to secure your transactions, it’s recommended to use a device that has biometric authentication, such as a phone with a bank app that needs a facial ID before it can approve a payment.

“You are ensuring that every transaction on your card is being made by a device that’s protected, and reduces the risk of that card being stolen,” explained Frost.

If a toll gate does not support tap-and-go, rather use cash to pay instead of a card. However, it is also advised to not travel with large sums of cash and to hide what you are carrying in a secure, non-visible place such the glove box.

Other safety measures that motorists can take include using e-Tags, and using your phone’s banking app to set and lower the amount that a transaction will allow before needing a PIN.