By Annalise Kempen
Photos and images courtesy of Pixabay and Freepik
The younger generation is skilled at taking selfies and uploading them to social media. They know how to strike the right pose to make the selfies look less amateurish using remote triggers or selfie sticks. When they are satisfied with the “look” they post these selfies across social media platforms for their friends and followers to like or for comment. In a world where cybercriminals are always on the prowl for their next victims, they are even taking advantage of our selfies to perpetrate fraud.
In 2024, one of South Africa’s major banks warned us about a new digital banking scam linked to selfie verification, where scammers trick users into revealing details like their ID numbers. The scammer will ask someone to take a selfie of their intended victim, but by using their own (the fraudster’s) smartphone. This step is important to enable them to load a banking app profile on their smartphones using a specific user’s name and details, without their knowledge.
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[This is only an extract of an article published in Servamus: February 2026. This article is available for purchase.]