Mobile banking fraud hits pensioner
Bank won’t refund Ndala on grounds that she compromised banking details
Mobile and internet banking is widespread, and consumers are falling victim to fraudulent transfers.
Take the case of a 65-year-old pensioner whose account at Capitec was hacked. She was told she had compromised her banking details, and the bank exonerated itself from liability.
Iris Ndala, of Horizon View in Roodepoort, lost R18 153, which had been transferred to five Capitec clients since October 2016.
Ndala said she did not receive SMS notifications when the transactions were made, and could not understand why there were debit orders with a USSD identification going through her account. She said she thought they were bank charges, and ignored them.
Ndala said this went on until May this year when she received a telephone call from a person who inquired about a loan she had been granted by African Bank. She said she confirmed verification and soon thereafter her cellphone went dead and R6 000 was subsequently transferred to two Capitec clients.
Ndala believes the bank has a duty to ensure that her money was safe and not accessed by clients who bank with the same bank without her permission. “I think this is an inside job and the bank should reverse my money from these culprits’ accounts,” she said.
Ndala said she plans to move to another bank as her money was no longer safe with Capitec. Although she opened a fraud case two months ago, nothing has happened.
Consumer Line spoke to one of the recipients of the fraudulent transaction, Laurentia Masuku of Orange Farm, who said she too was surprised by a deposit and a reversal of money in her account.
“When I inquired about reversal of R1 300 which was deposited into my account, the bank responded by freezing it,” Masuku said. She has not been able to access her account since May, pending the bank’s investigation, she said.
After Consumer Line’s intervention, Capitec offered Ndala R1 300 as a gesture of goodwill. Capitec head of communications Charl Nel said they sympathised with Ndala but were not liable to refund her the full amount as this type of fraud can only be committed when personal information is divulged.
Asked if the fraudsters were Capitec clients, Nel said legally banks were not allowed to share any personal confidential information with any party except the police.