R3 billion in fraud: How toll payment changes are fighting back
6 min read
On a busy day, the N3 toll route between KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng experiences upward of 2 000 vehicles passing the tollgates every hour. It costs the average car R326.50 to travel to Durban, R286 to the Kruger National Park, and R233 to Cape Town.
And paying for these tolls has changed over the past few months. As of November 2024, the N3 and N4 rolled out tap-and-go payments using a pilot system introduced by FNB in partnership with Visa. As of 1 December 2024, many of these tollgates stopped allowing motorists to pay using the swipe system. Banks, including Nedbank, have stopped allowing people to swipe their cards as of January 2025, with others expected to follow suit. While some toll concessions, such as Sanral, will be accepting magstripe payments until as late as May 2025, the payment method is coming to a sharp, swift end.
Why? Because tollgates have been identified as one of the most prominent locations for fraud. Criminals are using devices such as overlay skimmers or wireless devices to capture card information and then use it to make fraudulent transactions. Card owners have lost thousands of rands to scammers using cloned or counterfeit cards.
So why is tap-and-go acceptable and swiping is not?
The answer lies in how easy it is for fraudsters to clone your cards and steal your money, especially when you won’t notice as tiny amounts disappear from your account. Often, the scammers – who find it very easy to copy your card in the few seconds it’s sitting in the tollgate booth – don’t extract huge amounts of money when they gain access to your card. They make tiny transactions that often go unnoticed until it’s too late.
That said, it’s important to highlight that even tap-and-go presents a risk if you’re using a card. If it’s stolen, small transactions at tollgates are easy to miss on your bank statement.
The best course of action is to use tap-and-go, but to instead opt into using a device that has biometric authentication. Your phone, for example, requires facial ID before it allows a transaction. You are ensuring every transaction on your card is being made by a device that’s protected, and reduces the risk of that card being stolen.
The challenge for card users is that they end up funding someone else’s holiday and, in some cases, getting warnings from their bank to pay for transactions they never made. For financial institutions, it’s an administrative nightmare, as they have to find and reimburse every single transaction.
Tapping your card and using a Tag both remove the human element. No one touches your card or the payment system except for you, preventing anyone from cloning or stealing your details. It’s also far more secure than using cash, which can be easily lost or stolen.
However, as the holiday season approaches, travellers should consider the following tips to protect their cards and their cash as they navigate the toll roads.
If you don’t have a device or card that allows for tap-and-pay, or you are concerned that you may encounter a tollgate without this functionality and don’t want to risk swiping your card, have cash stored in your vehicle in a secure, hard to find space. Only take the maximum amount you would need for your trip, and use the time in the queue to pay to take out the right number of bills.
If you are using the eTag capability, ensure you are topped up and there’s no risk of your having to use an alternative method of payment.
Adjust your tap-and-go amounts manually, and ensure you set a PIN for any transactions over a certain amount. Banks like FNB and Standard Bank allow you to turn the function off, or to keep purchases to below a R100 limit or to request a PIN when you spend more than this amount. This is a good way to protect you from inadvertent fraud and still allow for you to make payments at tollgates, as it keeps expenditure under your control.
While these measures may seem draconian or dramatic, the reality is that fraud is on the increase, with the SABRIC Annual Crime Statistics Report 2023, released in November 2024, putting the cost of this crime at more than R3 billion. The Southern African Fraud Prevention Service’s 2024 report says banking fraud accounted for 45% of the 31% increase in reported fraud incidents.
Ensuring your funds are protected and your cards can’t be cloned, regardless of whether you’re paying at a tollgate or at a petrol station, is the best way to ensure you have a great holiday without unexpected expenses and stress.
Richard Frost
Head of Technology and Innovation
Image credit: Sanral
