Over the past few months we have been made aware of various fraudulent attempts made on investor’s investment accounts in South Africa.

With email hacking on the rise, we have processes in place to ensure that our client’s investments are protected; however the modus operandi of these fraudsters does continue to evolve; as a result we ask for your assistance in preventing these attempts.

The current modus operandi:

1. The fraudster clones the clients correct email address
2. A bank account is opened in the clients name
3. The fraudster contacts the clients planner asking for a withdrawal form, which they duly return signed with the ‘new’ bank details

Our process:

Independent Wealth Managers has implemented the following process for dealing with withdrawals:

1. Should an email request be received, we will call the client using the telephone number we have on our database and confirm that the email is legitimate
2. No change of bank account will be actioned without first confirming by telephone that the request is legitimate

What you can do:

We urge you to check and ensure that the security settings are at maximum, particularly on internet-based email addresses such as Gmail. In Gmail a security and privacy check-up can be done under “My Account”. For further assistance refer to the following website:

https://securityinabox.org/en/guide/secure-communication

Should you require a withdrawal of funds, kindly contact us by telephone to verify your identification. Should we receive requests by email, we will call to verify the request, kindly note that this could result in a slight delay to the process should we be unable to reach you.