Thieves empty east woman’s bank account after phone stolen
“They even changed my e-mail passwords and recovery account on my email so that only they can recover my mobile banking app password."
A Pretoria woman alleges her accounts were sucked dry after her phone was stolen at a shopping mall in the east last Thursday.
“I immediately went to the mall and blacklisted the phone and did a sim swap,” Jeanette Zwanepoel told on Facebook.
“I thought all was okay – it’s just a phone.”
Unfortunately, Zwanepoel couldn’t have been more wrong.
Somehow the thieves managed to access her mobile banking app and transferred money from her accounts into their account.
“The next morning I went to a petrol station and my card was declined,” she said.
“I went to the bank and that’s when I was shocked to see that my accounts were empty and all my money was transferred to a Capitec account.”
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Zwanepoel said it is still a mystery to her how they managed to access her blacklisted phone, which even had a password.
“They even changed my e-mail passwords and recovery account on my email so that only they can recover my mobile banking app password. They did all this so I would not get notification messages.”
Now Zwanepoel believes that banks do not tell customers that internet banking is only safe if you have your phone with you.
She advised people not to use their phones while walking in public and to always keep their purse and bags close to them at all times.
She further advised people to stop their internet banking first if their phone gets stolen.
“I thought that by just blocking the phone I would be safe,” she said.
“The thieves just get smarter altogether with technology.”
Barclays Africa spokesperson Marius de la Rey said: “It is important to note that customers have a duty to protect their own security information which includes passwords, app passcodes and pins as well as devices such as phones or computers that they use to access their account, whether online or via the banking app.”
De la Rey said Absa “continuously updates and invests heavily in a comprehensive and robust suite of information protection measures and the latest technology available in the market to safeguard our customers and ensure the prevention of cyber-hacking.”
“We never ask our customers to provide their account login information either electronically or via telephone. We regularly advise our customers to ignore such requests and immediately call our fraud hotline.”
Here are some tips for keeping your account safe:
– Always carefully take note of security messages before accepting or rejecting.
– Take note of login notifications sent to your device, and take action immediately if this is not you.
– Register for transaction notifications to get SMS or e-mail alerts of activity on your account.
– Never provide your login information to anyone – even if they say they are from the bank. The banks will never ask you for your PIN, password or app passcode.
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