Money NOT safe and secure with RMB

I didn’t want to have to write this post, but I feel I have no choice. Your money is NOT safe or secure with RMB - Rand Merchant Bank AND if something goes wrong they will take ZERO accountability. In addition, their client service is non-existent.

On 05/08/2022 an amount of R35,457.57 (the money I had spent ages saving to ship over our animals) was siphoned out of my account in three sequential transactions by someone called CHANG SHA ME. I never authorised these transactions. In fact, at the time I was on the phone to my mom. I immediately flagged the transactions as ********** with RMB and blocked my internet banking. Following weeks of frustration, their decision to decline my request for a refund is based on the following findings, a standardised response stating that either:

1) My card had been ****** and used - which is impossible as I still have it on my person 2) the case could not be linked to any other reported ***** cases and also does not form part of the normal "modus operandi" of ********** operating with cloned cards - I mean ***? They should be on top of this stuff as a bank. 3) The transaction happened where I usually transact - I had just moved to Sydney.

I did not accept any of this and escalated the case. I should mention that I have a fusion account - basically a cheque/credit card hybrid - but be warned, it offers none of the security you’d have with a credit card despite having all the same functionality.

Following another long wait their inept service recovery department sent yet another standardised refusal simply stating that “the Bank has reviewed the case and considered all the facts in reaching a final decision to not refund the disputed amount as the transactions were secure transactions.” But how? I still have my card and no one knows my pin but me!!!

RMB then tried to offer me a pathetic “goodwill” gesture of R7000 with the proviso I never speak of this incident again. Safe to say, I turned it down.

We still have unanswered questions like how x3 payments were able to exit my account without authorisation from the app, what currency was used, the actual time of the day these took place - and the exact location of the transactions. For a claim involving a large amount of money to be refused by RMB I would expect to have detailed reasons - and thorough investigative findings.

Of course, despite diligently paying my monthly banking fees, no one bothers to respond to me, least of all my “personal private banker”. I might not be one of your high nett worth clients, RMB, but I would still like conclusive answers, and a full refund, so if someone could get back to me that would be great. I wish I’d stayed with Investec.