For its victims, identity fraud—also called identity theft—can have terrible results. Financial losses, credit damage, and a protracted and difficult procedure to rebuild your identity can all follow from someone using your personal information without your permission to commit fraud or other crimes.
Should you believe you have fallen victim to identity fraud, you should act fast and follow the required procedures to guard yourself. The South African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS) is one of the main agencies you could need help with this procedure.
This guide will explain exactly what happens if you are listed on safps and steps you can take.
What is SAFPS?
Aimed to stop fraud originating from identity theft and impersonation, SAFPS is a non-profit. By means of the sharing of fraud data among their members—that is, companies in diverse sectors including banking, retail, financial services, telecommunications, motor vehicle finance, and insurance—they aim to shield people and businesses from the financial consequences of fraud.
SAFPS lets companies effectively and safely distribute records of fraud using their central database. By means of this extensive database, SAFPS can see trends of fraud and intervene early to stop more fraudulent behavior.
Operating since 2001, SAFPS has stopped billion of rand worth of fraud losses inside the South African economy. Their members and customers who have reported fraudulent conduct to SAFPS have helped them to promptly spot and stop more fraudulent activity.
What is Protective Registration?
Protective Registration is one of SAFPS’ main offerings. As a proactive way to guard against identity theft and fraud, this service lets people register their personal information with SAFPS.
Should you misplace your ID book or passport or discover it stolen, you can record the information with SAFPS. After that, they will enter the data into their database and notify SAFPS members to be extra cautious verifying your identification. This helps someone else from opening accounts or applying for loans in your name from utilizing your personal data.
Free for the public of South Africa, protective registration can be sought for online, by email, or by personally visiting SAFPS. You will be given a Protective Registration reference number once you have registered, which you can show companies while they are confirming your identification.
What Happens if You are Listed on SAFPS
If you suspect that you have been a victim of identity fraud, you should immediately contact SAFPS to report the incident. This can be done by calling their helpline at 011 867 2234 or by emailing protection@safps.org.za.
Once you have reported the fraud, SAFPS will take the following steps:
victim of impersonation listing
SAFPS will register a Victim of Impersonation entry on their database, thereby alerting their members to have identity theft victim experience. This list acts as a preventive tool, alerting companies to be very careful when confirming your identification to make sure they are dealing with the actual identity holder—not a phoney.
The victim of impersonation listing will stay on the SAFPS database either permanently or until you ask for it to be deleted. This is a positive listing since it guards you against more fraudulent behavior.
Registration for Protection
Apart from the victim of impersonation list, SAFPS will also generate a protective registration for you. Indicating to SAFPS members that your personal data has been hacked and that they should exercise extra care when verifying your identification, this listing provides a supplementary protection.
Additionally kept on the SAFPS database eternally or until you ask for its deletion is the Protective Registration listing. This is a good precaution against identity theft and fraud, just like the Victim of Impersonation listing is.
Target of an Impersonation Letter
To help validate your identification, SAFPS will send you a Victim of Impersonation letter which you can forward to credit companies and other businesses. This letter will verify that you have been the victim of identity theft and that you did not participate in the dishonest behavior.
Dealing with the South African Police Service (SAPS)
SAFPS will counsel you on reporting the fraud to the South African Police Service (SAPS). This is a crucial phase since it will document the incident formally and could support the inquiry and possible recovery of any pilfers of money.
Implications of a SAFPS Listing
After you discover what happens if you are listed on safps, whether it is a Victim of Impersonation or Protective Registration, can have several implications for you as the individual:
Financial Services and Credit
Applying for credit or other financial services will probably cause the company you are working with to check the SAFPS database as part of their identification verification procedure. Should they discover that you have a SAFPS listing, they could follow extra procedures to validate your identification, including asking for more records or personally contacting you to confirm the details.
Should the company not be convinced you are the real identity holder, occasionally they may even reject your application. This is so because they owe it to their other clients as well as to themselves to guard against possible fraud.
Employment and Background Investigations
As part of their background check procedure, companies and other associations might also consult the SAFPS database. Should they discover your SAFPS listing, it could call into doubt your identity and credibility, therefore affecting your chances for work or other prospects.
Image and Emotional Impact
Identity theft victim experiences can be horrific on both emotional and financial levels. Constant reminder of the occurrence provided by the SAFPS listing helps one be tension and anxiety free. It might also affect your reputation since certain companies or people would consider the listing as a bad mark against you even if you were the victim of the crime.
SAFPS Listing Period
SAFPS fraud-related postings usually stay on file for ten years. Legal requirements for SAFPS to remove scam listings within a shorter period, say one year, are absent.
Under the National Credit Act, the length of SAFPS listings is not the same as the 1 year expungement period for “adverse classifications of consumer behaviour”. Instead of subjective categorization, fraud listings are grounded on objective criteria.
How to Remove Name from SAFPS Listing
Should you have a SAFPS listing and have been the victim of identity theft, you could be asking whether it is feasible to have the listing deleted. The good news is that you can ask for the Victim of Impersonation and Protective Registration listings to be removed; the process can be time-consuming and complicated though.
You will need to present SAFPS documents proving your identity and proving that you were the victim of fraud if you wish a SAFPS listing deleted. This could entail:
One copy of your passport or ID document
Verify of address
Copies of all letters or records from the credit companies or other companies engaged in the fraudulent behavior
a letter from the SAPS verifying your incident reporting.
SAFPS will delete the Victim of Impersonation and Protective Registration listings from their database once they have examined the records and are positive you were the victim of fraud. As this is a record of the fraudulent behavior that happened, the fraud listing itself could stay on the database for up to ten years, though.
Preventing Identity Theft and Fraud
Although having a SAFPS listing can be annoying and demanding, keep in mind that it is a preventive step meant to guard you from more fraud. You are helping to stop other people from becoming victims of identity theft by following the required procedures to document the incidence and have the listings entered into the SAFPS database.
You can take many actions to increase your protection from identity theft and fraud:
Examine your bank statements and credit report often for any unusual behavior.
Shred any personal-containing documentation before throwing them away.
Share your personal information carefully both online and over the phone.
Think about safeguarding your online accounts using a secure password manager.
Update your devices’ security software often.
Watch out for unwanted text messages, phone calls, or emails requesting your personal data.
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By knowing what happens if you are listed on safps and taking these precautions and working with organizations like SAFPS, you can help to reduce the risk of becoming a victim of identity theft and fraud.