Is it always the customer’s fault when money vanishes, or is there an “inside job” problem the banks won’t talk about?
@Rebecca_Davis’s investigation has revealed a pattern of South African banks blaming “social engineering” for almost every fraud case, even when payment limits are lifted or beneficiaries are added without the client’s knowledge. Banks insist their systems are airtight, but court records tell of employees diverting OTPs and IT operators improperly altering account settings for years. Shockingly, most banks refuse to release the technical audit logs that would prove a victim’s innocence, leaving people to take the bank’s word on trust.
Have you ever been a victim of digital fraud where you felt the “explanation” from the bank didn’t add up?
The stories in Rebecca’s article reflect exactly the experience my company is currently involved in with Standard Bank. We have been victims of huge fraud. A large amount of funds were removed overnight from 4 accounts belonging to the company and transferred to beneficiaries loaded that night - completely unknown to the company. Standard Bank denied that this could have happened - it “must have been our fault”. Having dealt with Standard Bank for over 40 years, one would have thought they would have records of exactly who our current regular beneficiaries are! After jumping through hoops and proving that it was not any leak from the company, Standard Bank offered us 25% of the amount taken! What an outright insult - apart from anything else!
Having gone down every avenue, the fraud police, the Hawks, SA Revenue, Banking ombudsman, our own lawyers (who, by the way, did not want to touch this!) and employing the services of a private investigating company, Standard Bank say they have now “found” some of the money - and frozen it! This is now over 4 months of sleepless nights, huge anxiety, down the line, and they are still denying any culpability. There is absolutley no way that this was not an inside job!
I trust you will pursue your investigations and I look forward to what this might lead to. The banks are culpable.
Following your recent Daily Maverick reporting on how banks handle fraud cases, I’d like to share an incident involving Discovery Bank that raises some concerning questions.
I was contacted by someone claiming to be from their fraud team who was able to provide extensive and highly sensitive account information—including details that should not ordinarily be accessible—before significant funds were moved from both my Discovery and Investec accounts.
Investec refunded the loss in full; Discovery declined my claim and has not provided a clear explanation for key aspects of the incident, including access to call recordings and the conversion and withdrawal of loyalty points.
Given the nature of the information accessed and the bank’s response, I believe this case may point to broader issues worth examining. I can provide full documentation and a detailed timeline if helpful.
A year ago, I notice a small amount coming off my current account every month, supposedly for a garage card, which I do not own. When I contacted Standard bank, they finally gave me information about this (but only after I had to follow up with them every week for 3 weeks) - they said that an “old” expired garage card was still linked to this account. They then delinked it. I asked how this had happened, since the card had expired almost 10 years previously - no-one had an explanation to give me. Furthermore, I asked whether they had reimbursed me the deductions and the response was “Oh no, this query was logged just to see what the deductions were. If you want a refund, you must log another query” I did eventually get the refund (again, it took multiple reminders) but I was never given an explanation as to how an expired card that was supposedly still linked to my account was suddenly made active again.