FNB refusing to refund R57,829 despite confirmed account interception, foreign access and unauthorised internal transfers

I am posting this after FNB has issued a formal deadlock on my ***** dispute, despite clear internal evidence that my account was compromised by a third party.

On the evening of 9 December 2025, I attempted to make a small online purchase on Temu, but the FNB app kept displaying “server unavailable”. No transaction went through and no confirmation was received.

While I was asleep in the early hours of 10 December 2025, multiple SMS-based OTPs were sent to my phone. I did not request, enter or approve any of them. I also did not receive any Smart InContact push notifications on my device.

When I woke up shortly after 05:00, I saw that multiple transactions had been made. When I logged into my FNB app, the *****ulent transactions were still showing as “pending”, and I immediately contacted FNB ***** and had my cards cancelled. Despite this, the transactions were still allowed to process.

During this *****, money was moved internally between my Cheque Account, Savings Account and Money Maximiser without my authorisation to fund the *****ulent card purchases. The total amount taken was R57,829.01.

I was contacted by FNB ***** consultant Ronan Thomas on 22 and 23 December 2025, who reviewed the case in detail with me. He confirmed that:

• My account was accessed from another device

• It was accessed from a different location

• The access was done via a web browser, not my mobile app

• One of the purchases originated from Barcelona, Spain

• Activity logs showed a third party active on my account

• Internal transfers between my accounts were synchronised with the *****ulent purchases

• The activity pattern indicated account interception, not customer-initiated use

Despite this, FNB rejected my claim purely because OTP authentication was present, without proving that I entered the OTP, on my device, from my location.

This is totally unacceptable as:

An OTP being generated does not prove customer authorisation when:

• The account was accessed from another device

• From another location

• Via a web browser

• With foreign transactions

• With unauthorised internal fund movements

I reported the ***** immediately while transactions were still pending, yet FNB failed to block or reverse them.

FNB also promotes Money Protect for unauthorised digital *****, but they have refused to explain how it was assessed or app**** in my case, despite internal evidence of account compromise.

I am requesting:

A full reversal of the R57,829.01

A written explanation of how my OTP was compromised

Disclosure of the device, IP address and geolocation used for the *****ulent access

Clarification on why Money Protect was not honoured FNB has declared this matter at deadlock, and I have escalated it to the National Financial Ombud. I am now making this public because this represents a serious digital banking security failure.

I will update this review once FNB resolves the matter