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Andro Nel, A Fin24 user tells of his SIM swap and banking fraud experience:
According to the MTN system a SIM swap was done earlier that morning in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal.
I had a similar experience, also with MTN Group [JSE:MTN] and Absa Group [JSE:ASA], on December 10 2012.
My phone also stopped working on the morning, shortly after 06:00, of December 10 2012, and it displayed “No service”.
At first I wasn’t too worried about it, but when at about 08:30 it was still not working, I went to MTN Service Centre Rivonia to find out what the problem was.
My SIM card was tested in other phones and it was confirmed that the SIM was not active on the MTN network anymore.
According to the MTN system a SIM swap was done earlier that morning in Pinetown, KwaZulu-Natal.
I had to do another SIM swap to get my phone working again.
I immediately realised the reason for doing an unauthorised SIM swap was to commit fraud.
As soon as I got back to work I tried to log into my bank account, but the account was already blocked.
I phoned Absa fraud hotline and was informed that R19 150 was transferred out of my account to four other Absa accounts. The transactions happened between 07:43 and 07:53!
Absa was able to recover R4 651.03 but also stated that because the “one-time pin” (OTP) was sent to the correct cellphone number according to them, they were not liable for my loss and they closed my case.
They said I should contact the Banking Adjudicator for any further assistance or information.
I also had to open a case with the police, who after about two weeks of investigation phoned me and informed me they are closing the case as it is nearly impossible to track down the fraudster.
I also phoned MTN's fraud line and I was told that they would investigate the matter but I haven’t received any reply from them yet.
I’ve been using internet banking for more than 10 years and I spot a phishing email from far away. I also have very good anti-virus/anti-spyware protection and try to use only one computer for all my banking.
I have no doubt that this is an “inside job”, it seems to be mostly Absa/MTN, your article is now the fourth case I read of in the last month alone.
