Over 100 telemarketers have been blacklisted for debiting consumers for services they did not provide forcing Payments Association of South Africa to take action on these companies that have been proven guilty of fraudulent transactions where banking details of individuals were obtained illegally.

More than 120,000 of the 31 million payment orders processed monthly had been disputed by consumers. Illegal deductions were also made without the consent of customers which resulted in debit orders having to be reversed at some considerable cost to a Payment Systems Company PS and S.

Unsophisticated consumers are at greatest risk because they are not aware of how to dispute illegal debit order deductions. CEO Walter Volker asked banks to educate the public to check and verify whether any of the deductions made on their accounts were fraudulent or made without their consent.

"By keeping track of address details as well as ID numbers, it makes it easier to spot when they reappear under a different guise." said Mr. Volker.