Local banks said there was not much they could do after a Rabie Ridge resident lost her life savings through fraudulent money transfers.
The elderly resident lost all her savings after losing her cell phone at a grocery store in Woodmead on 30 August.
According to Valerie Morgan, her card was swallowed while using a Nedbank ATM on 31 August. She went inside the bank to ask if they could give her card back. Instead, they asked her to request a new card as they would not get it out of the machine.
While being asked security questions, she was asked how much money she had in her account and Morgan replied she had R39 200 in her account. However, when the employee checked, they found that there was no money in the account.
“They asked me when last I used my banking card. I told them that I used it yesterday, which was on 30 August when I was out shopping,” said Morgan.
“The banking employee gave me a statement for my account and indeed, there was no money in the account.”
Morgan added that according to her bank statement, money was transferred into her Capitec account through her Nedbank banking application after losing her phone, and there was no money in her Capitec account as well.
“I opened a case with the banks involved, which is Nedbank and Capitec. I also opened a case at the local police station. Now, the whole month of September, I went to the banks almost twice a week for four weeks and never received any satisfactory answers.”
Sandton Police Station spokesperson, Captain Bheki Xulu, confirmed that a case was opened. “Yes the docket was registered at Rabie Ridge and was transferred to Sandton Police Station. The incident took place at Woodmead on 30 August this year. A fraud docket was opened for further investigation,” Xulu concluded.
Nedbank’s Annaleigh Vallie, head of corporate communication told Midrand Reporter that their logs indicated that the Nedbank application was accessed on the client’s stolen device with the application pin, which was only known to the client.
“Two fraudulent payments were made, one of R2 200 using ‘Send iMali’ and one of R37 000 to the client’s own Capitec account,” said Vallie.
“The payment of R37 000 was made from the client’s Capitec account using the Capitec application, and the client needs to seek recourse from Capitec in respect of that payment. A goodwill offer of R440 was made to the client based only on the R2 200.”
Capitec spokesperson, Charl Nel said on their behalf there was nothing they could do but they could confirm that Capitec systems or employees were not responsible in any way for the pin number’s compromise and unauthorised transaction.
“We, unfortunately, cannot establish how the application was accessed without performing a physical analysis of the device. “However, the fact that the fraudsters successfully logged into the app using the correct pin numerous times, indicates that they were already aware of the pin.
“We could not establish how the pin may have been compromised by Mrs Morgan, however, this could have been a targeted attack,” Nel concluded.
Details: Sandton Police Station
011 722 4200.
