Consumer Forum

Banks seem to have been careless or complicit

YOUR article last week, “Cruel e-mail scam robs dad of his pension savings”, refers. I know of a case where a youngster buying his first house was swindled out of his deposit in the same way. He is desperately trying to recover the funds, which were fraudulently transferred to a Nedbank account.

There is another leg to this fraud, namely the culpability of the banks involved: the fraudster had to open a bank account and presumably all Fica — Financial Intelligence Centre Act — requirements were met. If this was done, the perpetrator should be able to be identified, unless there was collusion with bank officials.

In the case I know of, a large sum was deposited to the fraudster’s account, quickly withdrawn and transferred overseas. It happened on a Friday and by Monday the funds had vanished. Surely the bank can supply details of this; authorisations used, time withdrawn, CCTV camera identification? Banks are insured against fraud and this could be the route for those who lost money. If the banks were incompetent, surely they are liable?

Many thanks for your excellent column — I hope it assists in these people recovering their funds. —

Gavin Ward, Plettenberg Bay

Bank guarantee the best way to pay for property

AFTER reading the article about Petrofski Williams last week, for whom I feel very sad, I thought that I would share some important information. Advice to would-be property buyers is not to part with their money to anyone, including reputable property agents, attorneys, accountants and any other entity, but to use a South African-registered bank.

You can use a bank guarantee to make a payment towards a property being purchased. Although the bank will levy a fee, you can rest assured that payment will happen only after the property is transferred to your name. You will earn income on the funds placed with the bank against which it will issue a guarantee.

The guarantee assures the seller of payment subject to conditions, the main one being the transfer of the property into your name. The fee is minimal compared to the price of the property. — Dawood

Desai, by e-mail

Ensure name and account number correspond

THANKS for exposing the danger of transferring money to fraudulent bank accounts. Every day people lose millions to fake accounts because banks do not require the beneficiary name and account number to correspond.

The reason is probably that it will cause many referrals for correction, but surely that is the sender’s fault and the referral will be done automatically? — Ian Beswick,

by e-mail

We’d like to hear Nedbank’s response

A SURPRISE omission from the investigation into the Williams/Seeff fraud case published last week is Nedbank’s reaction. Given the amount of information that we as consumers have to provide when opening bank accounts — birth certificates, proof of residential address, utilities statements, signed affidavits — I am very surprised that the account holders cannot be traced and brought to book. —

Alan Chandler, Rondebosch

Cigarette buyers delayed by selfish shoppers

I JUST have to reply to last week’s Sunday Snarl about cigarette buyers holding up queues at tills while packers run to the cigarette counter for stock. Guess what? Every time I go to any cigarette counter at a supermarket there are customers with a basket or small trolley of groceries, hoping to get through quicker.

I call the manager and make a noise about those not buying cigarettes using that counter. — Mark Brierley, by e-mail