*****ulent transactions authorised on my account

On the 23rd of June 2025, I discovered that *****ulent transactions were made on my account. My phone number was changed and a new card was issued. All these charges along with purchases to the value of almost R11000 was made on my account in Pretoria, I live in Cape Town. I had to take a day off from work to go to SAPS for an affadavit, request statements from Ackermans, complete a dispute form to email the ***** department. I was blocked from using my card to make much needed winter purchases because of the *****ulent transactions on my account. Not once did a representative from Ackermans contact me to reassure me that they were working to discover what went wrong. I had to follow up and constantly be told that I had to wait on a call as the query would take between 21 and 30 days. On Friday 04th July I called to follow up once again and Aziza in the ***** department cut my call 3 times. She also **** and told me that there was not a supervisor present as they had all left for the day and company policy prevented her from giving me her surname as I wanted to complain about her lack of service and care when handling my call which was very important to me. I called back again and I was connected to a supervisor by the name of Widaad Veinaiee who promised me that my query would be escalated. Not long after speaking with Widaad I got a message on my phone stating that my account had been restored. I was ecstatic, this meant I could finally do some shopping. About 20 minutes after the sms, someone called and said the query had been solved. When I asked if I could purchase on my account, she told me I needed to pay the balance and "management" made the decision to close my account. The ***** had to go through a verification process to change my phone number and order a new card on my account which was authorised, but I have to pay the price because Ackermans verified *****ulent details which had been accessed by someone who was not supposed to be in possession of my personal and private information! What about the POPI act? I was told by Widaad that an sms was sent to me on the 19th which I missed, and in order change my phone number and order a card would have required my ID to be presented to Ackermans to effect my details. I asked which store would have taken a copy of my ID and signature and she was unable to tell me but since I have my ID and card with me and it is not missing, how did they manage to do this? Ackermans states that " Our customers have been at the heart of our story for over 100 years" if this were true, how could they just close my account which I have had for over 10 years? The Ackermans story says "We’re with you for the balancing act of family life. We understand the pressure on your pockets and we get that every little helps! Our Financial Solutions help manage your budget with various bill payment facilities and we offer a range of payment methods: shop on credit, purchase on lay-by or pay cash in-store" but this seems like lip service as management closed my account when I did nothing wrong! I am held responsible and made to feel like I am a *****. Ackermans goes on to state that "We know that your family comes first and always will. We’ve named our CSI programme Ububele, which means kindness and generosity" how was kindess and generosity app**** to me when they just kicked me to the street? How does this apply to me? Are the people who make the rules even aware of how we suffer at the hands of their staff? Are they interested? Ackermans seems to care more about the balance I owe and not the inconvenience to me and the loss of credit I have built over the years. Me being a loyal paying customer for over 10 years means nothing to them. I do not have the cash to make cash purchases and yet they just ready to part ways with me. I hope that someone cares enough to look into this and put meaning to the words on their website which now carries no weight and means absolutely nothing.