Sassa suspends ATM withdrawals amid fraud allegations
Only Postbank clients are affected by the ATM's suspension, says Sassa spokesperson.
Sassa has suspended withdrawals from ATMs amid fraud allegations.
The agency cautioned beneficiaries that use gold Sassa cards against withdrawing from ATMs, after Postbank discovered that a criminal network that was targeting its ATMs to gain access to beneficiaries’ accounts.
However, Sassa spokesperson Brenton van Vrede told Rekord that only beneficiaries using Postbank were affected.
“Only Postbank clients are affected, not those of other banks,” Van Vrede said.
Meanwhile, Postbank guaranteed beneficiaries that it had assigned a team of experts and law enforcement agencies to deal with the matter urgently.
“Postbank is aware of the impact this change in payment channels will have on social grant beneficiaries and other stakeholders, and we apologise for the inconvenience.”
Bank spokesperson Bongani Diako said the bank would continue to monitor its networks at all their branches.
Around six million Sassa beneficiaries use gold cards, but a large chunk of them had already been paid, Diako said.
He asked clients using the Postbank-issued Sassa gold card to withdraw their social grant monies at retail outlets nationwide where the cashback functionality is in place. These outlets include Shoprite, U Save, Checkers, Pick n Pay and Boxer stores.
Sassa gold cards can also be used to make purchases at any outlet that accepts bank card transactions.
Postbank said social grants beneficiaries can rest assured that the Postbank-issued Sassa gold cards remain valid and have not expired.
“Beneficiaries should not be misled into changing the cards unless they wish to do so on their own accord,” he said adding that scammers recently spread misinformation that these cards were no longer valid.
“Postbank will notify social grants beneficiaries when ATM transactions via the Sassa gold cards are available again.”
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