A Fin24 user tells how his wife fell victim to cellphone bank fraudsters. He writes:
My wife was a victim of credit and debit card fraud recently. She banks with Absa.
On October 24 2012, she was experiencing a problem with her cellphone number.
She went to Cell C and purchased a new sim card after they told her it was faulty and needed to be replaced. When she went to draw cash at an ATM, to her horror she was notified that she had insufficient funds.
She found it very strange as she did have plenty of cash in her account.
She immediately called the Absa call centre and froze her accounts after doing a balance enquir,y only to find there was no cash in her account.
Upon investigation at the bank the next day, she discovered that an amount of R8 160 was transferred from the savings account to another Absa account, an amount of R16 000 was transferred from her money builder account into her savings account and out to other Absa accounts.
Because her credit card was also linked to her savings account, they further transferred an amount of R26 000 from her credit card account into her savings account and out.
This was all done within a six-hour window period.
She was told that it would take approximately 10 to 14 days to investigate and rectify the fraud issue.
Since then an amount of R8 160 had been refunded, and we are still trying to get the balance of the money back.
The issue of her experiencing problems with her sim card on the day of the fraud is because she had the cellphone notification service on her account, and the fraudsters actually tampered with her cell number so that she could not receive the SMSs informing her of the activity on her account.
Absa's fraud division is investigating how fraudsters could gain access to my wife's phone and we are awaiting information from them.
- Fin24
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Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
Fin24 reserves the right to obtain service providers' comments before publishing any articles or letters, and to edit any material used. Fin24 also reserves the right to edit or delete any and all user comments received.
My wife was a victim of credit and debit card fraud recently. She banks with Absa.
On October 24 2012, she was experiencing a problem with her cellphone number.
She went to Cell C and purchased a new sim card after they told her it was faulty and needed to be replaced. When she went to draw cash at an ATM, to her horror she was notified that she had insufficient funds.
She found it very strange as she did have plenty of cash in her account.
She immediately called the Absa call centre and froze her accounts after doing a balance enquir,y only to find there was no cash in her account.
Upon investigation at the bank the next day, she discovered that an amount of R8 160 was transferred from the savings account to another Absa account, an amount of R16 000 was transferred from her money builder account into her savings account and out to other Absa accounts.
Because her credit card was also linked to her savings account, they further transferred an amount of R26 000 from her credit card account into her savings account and out.
This was all done within a six-hour window period.
She was told that it would take approximately 10 to 14 days to investigate and rectify the fraud issue.
Since then an amount of R8 160 had been refunded, and we are still trying to get the balance of the money back.
The issue of her experiencing problems with her sim card on the day of the fraud is because she had the cellphone notification service on her account, and the fraudsters actually tampered with her cell number so that she could not receive the SMSs informing her of the activity on her account.
Absa's fraud division is investigating how fraudsters could gain access to my wife's phone and we are awaiting information from them.
- Fin24
Something on your mind? Give us your feedback on editor@fin24.com.
Disclaimer: All articles and letters published on MyFin24 have been independently written by members of the Fin24 community. The views of users published on Fin24 are therefore their own and do not necessarily represent those of Fin24.
Fin24 reserves the right to obtain service providers' comments before publishing any articles or letters, and to edit any material used. Fin24 also reserves the right to edit or delete any and all user comments received.