Good job in highlighting R99 scam

Congratulations to The Citizen for highlighting the “99” banking scam, which has been going on for many years with scant effort to curb it by any of the major banks or regulatory bodies.

Maybe the banks were actually complicit because it has been lucrative for them? In spite of not vetting the authenticity of any of the debit orders they daily accept, they have the bare-assed cheek to charge their clients penalty fees to reverse unauthorised debit orders.

Payments Association (Pasa) CEO Walter Volker has, for the last four years, promised that the association has been working on a solution to curb the scamming scourge. His latest spin is that the banks intend to introduce a new vetting system called debi check whereby clients in future have to personally authorise any new debit orders.

The problem, according to Volker, is that the system might only become fully operational in about two years.

The banks should not insult our intelligence. SAbanks have some of the most advanced technology on the planet, and it isn’t rocket science to immediately introduce a professional verification system, which they should have done in the first instance. It’s an insult for Volker to make their problem our problem and merely urge us to check our statements every month to ascertain scam amounts.

An indication of the lack of will to protect their clientele is that they can’t provide any details of arrests and convictions of any of the syndicate scamsters who perpetrate the scams.

Volker said the police don’t want to prosecute miniscule R99 crimes, but collectively they amount to many millions of rands of our money.

And many hungry people have been imprisoned for stealing a loaf of bread.

The banks should get off their lazy butts and earn the exhorbitant charges they inflict on us long-suffering clients. Clive Swann

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