NO ***** PREVENTION AND NO RESPONSIBILITY

I am extremely disappointed in how ABSA has handled a ***** case on my mother’s account.

My mother, who is 69 years old, received a call from someone claiming to be from the bank, warning her of *****ulent activity. Believing she was assisting ABSA to stop ********s, she unfortunately provided information, not realizing it was a ****mer. I acknowledge that this was a mistake on her part. However, what is deeply concerning is how ABSA’s internal systems failed to protect her in such a massive and unusual transaction pattern.

In a single day:

All of her transaction limits were changed to maximum.

Her credit card funds were moved into her normal account.

Her investment account was drained into her normal account.

Over R250,000 was withdrawn from her account.

My mother’s normal monthly spend is around R20,000. How is it possible that a 69-year-old pensioner’s account suddenly showed such abnormal behavior without ABSA’s ***** detection systems flagging it? Shouldn’t there be alerts, freezes, or security checks when such drastic changes and large withdrawals happen?

To make matters worse, we reported the incident within an hour. The ABSA consultant even mentioned that the money was transferred to another ABSA account. Yet, ABSA has refused to take responsibility or assist in tracing where the money went. How can funds vanish between two ABSA accounts without accountability?

Instead of protecting its customers, ABSA has simply declined the case and placed all the blame on my mother, ignoring the fact that banks are supposed to have security measures in place to prevent exactly this kind of large-scale *****.

This has left my mother devastated and financially ruined. I believe ABSA has failed in its duty of care and in providing the security that customers trust banks to uphold.