Why doesn’t the bank protect clients against these scams?

IF ANYTHING, I hope my story will help many others by reporting this very clever scam to you.

I answered an advertisement on OLX for a double cab. The ad for this vehicle was in Harrismith. The vehicle belonged to a Mr Mhlungu.

On the Friday he insisted I put down a deposit as there were many people that wanted the car. His wife then called me and cried on the phone that they had bought a house through Absa and were behind in payments and would lose the house and the children would suffer.

On the Friday I paid a deposit of R10 000 into a Nedbank account. I then arranged for my driver to go up to Harrismith, to meet Mr Mhlungu at the police station, and hand over the balance of R55 000.

He called me as I left the bank and said he was worried that my driver, Ishmael, would be in danger carrying so much money. He also said he was nervous of having to take the money home on a Saturday, as the banks would be closed by the time we got to Harrismith, and he did not want the risk.

It all sounded so very genuine.

When we got to the police station in Harrismith, there was no Mr Mhlungu. He then called and said he was in church and was running late.

After waiting a few hours, and also being told that he had not been at the station as he had earlier stated, we realised that it was a scam.

I immediately notified my bank and Nedbank. Absa responded and advised me. Nedbank told me “an investigator” would contact me. The police have opened a docket and a detective has been assigned to the case, and that is the last I have heard.

I cannot get over how Nedbank have treated me.

R55 000 is a large amount of money to lose, and there is no help from Nedbank – all they are interested in is getting money into their accounts, criminals or not.

Please would you tell people of my experience and warn them of these scams. LYNN SCOTT Nedbank responds: Ned- bank sincerely regrets the incident in which Ms Scott lost her money as a result of a scam.

We received her e-mail with the report of the incident on Saturday, August 6, at 3.53pm.

We took immediate action to block the account, but unfortunately the criminals had already withdrawn the money.

Ms Scott was informed later in the evening that all the funds had been utilised.

Criminals frequently request victims to pay money into an account at another bank as it creates extra opportunity to remove the funds.

While the banks perform stringent verification in terms of Fica legislation (as was also the case with the account in question), this is not a guarantee that an account will not be used to commit fraud.

There are unfortunately many scam artists out there, and it is incumbent upon consumers not to part with their money unless they have confirmed the legitimacy of the transaction, regardless of how convincing the story may sound. Regrettably, banks cannot be held liable in circumstances like these.