ABSA is a supporter of crime in South Africa

I am a customer of ABSA for more than 3 years. I live abroad. I have always lived abroad. I am South African and live abroad so that I can invest the money I earn into my home country, South Africa, so that one day I might be able to actually live there. I am a single mother. I send all my money home and put it into ABSA Bank.

I was not able to go home for 2 years due to the Covid Pandemic. To make the trip, I sold ALL my furniture, and moved out my rental property so that I could afford tickets for my daughter and I to go visit my family. I did it! I managed to get the funds together to make the trip during the Pandemic. There were no connecting flights to my home town, East London, because of Covid etc. So I decided to rent a car and drive home.

I spent 2 nights in Jo'burg with my friend then started driving. Day 3 in South Africa, on route home to East London, I was ******. It was a complete set up consisting of about 10 men, who pretended to be government officials, and regular citizens. The government official actors posed set up a road block and advised me kindly to buy a ticket to continue driving on the road. They had uniforms, a white bakkie, they had clip boards, tags, and were friendly and professional. They told me I need a token and indicated I needed to buy one in a petrol station shop on the right. I thought they were government officials, and I listened to what I was advised to do. This ended with me inserting my bank card into a regular ATM machine and entering my PIN number as normal. R24 000 was withdrawn within minutes.

I did not give my consent for this money to be withdrawn. I did not request it even. I did not receive the money. I do not know the end point out of which that money was received, because it was not into my hand. I was not notified by ABSA of foul play.

I realized foul play and reported it immediately to the police and to ABSA directly. I immediately followed protocol and shut that account. I opened a police case with officers at the scene of the crime. There were 2 cameras at that ATM. There were witnesses. I also did as instructed by ABSA and wrote a sworn affidavit.

ABSA has not investigated this crime thoroughly. They have not responded to my pleas. They have not provided me evidence of the end point of where that money was taken. They have not contacted the police investigator in charge of the case. They have not provided me with video footage of the scene of the crime. They have only told me that they will not reimburse my money back to me. Therefore, I conclude that ABSA supports ********* and ******** activity in South Africa. I therefore conclude, ABSA is a participator and instigator of crime.

I am a single mother who works hard for her money without support. I have always been a good customer of ABSA. I was not notified of obscure withdrawals of R2000 x 12 transactions out of my account. The duty and responsibility of banks is to notify their customers of ********** transactions or strange transactions, or automatically stop cards if it is picked up by them. It is ABSA's duty to pick up on strange activity and strange withdrawals immediately and automatically stop cards before checking with their customers if it is in fact them who is making them.

I want ABSA to reimburse my R24 000. I want ABSA to prove they are on the side of their customers, they are not assisting *********, and that it is their duty to detect and respond immediately to obviously ********** transactions on the accounts of their customers immediately, or if they do not, they should take responsibility for this. Furthermore, ABSA charged me for making these transactions! They did not even refund the costs of 12 x R2000 ATM withdrawals.

ABSA is part of the problem of crime in South Africa. And, if this is untrue, pay me back my money.