Beware of credit card ******** at Standard Bank

I thought I should now begin to write down my credit card story as I am now confused as I have asked for a new card twice and have received the same card that is suspect – twice! Awhile back I received an sms asking if I had spent over R20,000 at Builders Warehouse. I answered the sms with a NO. I then almost immediately received a phone call from the bank “***** Unit” – however when the very friendly person on the line wanted to ask me security questions to continue, I told him that I would feel more comfortable call the bank number myself. He then told me he knew the amount of the credit limit ( I am guessing to show how legitimate he was) but I still declined and call Standard Bank. Well, needless to say, the bank had not phoned me. It was a ****. But they clearly knew too many of my details. This was not the first time I had a **** call from “Standard Bank” with someone wanting more details. So the person in the ***** unit said that if I didn’t cancel the card and get a new one, that I would be responsible for any charges. So we cancelled the card and I needed to order a new one. Then came the ever terrifying “Security questions” which I flunk more often than I pass. (But that should perhaps be a completely different email as I have a lot to say on the subject!) Needless to say, I failed the questions, not once but twice, which I find amazing as everything I answered was in fact truthful… The voice on the line said I could call back tomorrow and try again. As this was a Thursday and I had Friday free from teaching, I thought, let me go into the bank and sort it out personally so there was no confusion about whether “I was me…” I go into my branch at Sandton City with my PA and we tell the woman who helped us the story and she confirms my identity with a thumb print and my ID. So we again ordered a new card because of the potential *****. About 10 days later, the card arrives and is not only the same card, it even has the same pin number!!! So I called Standard Bank again and got a lovely man called Neo. I told him my story and he now needs to ask “Security questions” to be able to proceed. Well, thanks to some angel, I passed on the 2nd time! He then finds out that the card was ordered as “damaged” – hence me getting the same card. So now is the woman at the Standard Bank branch in cahoots with the people trying to do the *****? Or did someone change the order on the computer? I don’t know but we had the card with us at the bank and it was clearly not damaged, nor was the word ever used in our discussion. Now Neo tells me that we will have to order a brand new card that is different from the old one. So we do this and guess what. The card arrived this week: Same number, same dates, same 3 digits on the back. In what world is this a new card? When I looked up the pin number, at least that was different.

Now my question to you is this, the ******** that have been after me and my card details, have most of the info already, but not quite enough to use it. Is this truly what you do when a card is compromised? If so, why wasn’t I told to simply get a new pin number…. This whole thing does not make sense to me. Other that Standard Bank has a network of people who are perpetuating ***** on the bank customers. I really need help now as I have cancelled this card multiple times but it doesn’t go away.

I am pretty sure Standard Bank itself does not want to **** it’s customers but I do question how hard you make it for us to actually receive help. I would appreciate any advice you can give.