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Johannesburg - Absa Group [JSE:ASA] has suspended all credit
card transactions through the EasyPay website after receiving a number of fraud
complaints, according to a newspaper report on Monday.
The bank stopped all transactions on the EasyPay website
last week and laid a complaint with the police, according to the Afrikaans
daily Beeld.
Head of Absa's fraud detection unit Paul Mathias told the
paper the bank stopped the transactions last Wednesday as a pro-active step to
protect the bank's customers.
This would apply until the problem was resolved, he said.
Chief executive of EasyPay, Serge Balamant, said the company
had only found out that Absa had suspended its credit card transactions with
EasyPay when he read about it in a report in Die Burger.
"We will investigate all our options because Absa's
lack of transparency is costing us in our business and our credibility,"
Balamant told the Beeld.
EasyPay is a website which encrypts credit card users'
information when they pay accounts, traffic fines or prepaid electricity, which
should protect these details from internet fraudsters.
Mathias said EasyPay users could still conduct their
transactions at EasyPay kiosks and supermarket chain stores.
FNB, which manages EasyPay transactions, had been notified that
Absa was suspending the transactions.
FNB said it had not taken similar measures, although it was
aware of the problem.
Police spokesperson Lt-Col Andre Traut said on Monday that
the investigation had been handed over to the Hawks, who said they could not
divulge any details of the investigation.
EasyPay posted a 'phishing' warning on its website, saying
that customers should be vigilant against criminals who try to obtain
confidential information.
The message said EasyPay users should be suspicious of email
purporting to be from EasyPay requesting credit card details, as these were
often send by perpetrators of internet fraud.
