Disgraceful Service! Use another bank!

On the 28 Dec 2019 I was peacefully enjoying a meal in Abu Dhabi before I suddenly received numerous sms' noting several transactions from my card of varying amounts, none of which were made by me. They all had the same reference "GOOGLE *Ch g.co helppay GBR"

One after the other the sms' came through. Within the space of 2 minutes my bank account was emptied of thousands. I felt so helpless, especially being on the other side of the world. But moments later to my delight Standard Bank's ***** department called me to confirm if I had made those transaction. The bank had flagged them as suspicious. On the phone I was told that my Cheque card had been compromised and that it would need to be cancelled. I asked whether thy would be able to recover the missing funds, the consultant said yes but the case would need to be investigated.

I checked my bank statement via the online app and found that I was being charged insufficient funds fees (The ********* tried to take more money out not realizing that the account was empty). On top of that I was also charged international transaction fees for all the transactions, indicating that the ***** was from abroad. I took it upon myself to research the reference "GOOGLE *Ch g.co helppay GBR" and found that numerous people all over the world have been affected by this ***** and that it originates from the Ukraine. I have no idea how they got my details and I'm very disappointed in Standard Banks lack of security, especially since my card is not authorized to be used in the Ukraine.

On the 30th of December I received an sms from the bank stating that my ***** claim is still under investigation and that the final outcome would be revealed in 5 days. It's been 10 days and I still haven't heard anything.

Funnily enough the ****** funds were only deducted from my balance on the 2nd January 2020. The bank had plenty of time to stop the funds from going through but took absolutely no action!

I've tried contacting the bank NUMEROUS times over several days via email and twitter (twitter team is usually responsive), but they're flat out ignoring me. I have no choice but to escalate with the Ombudsman.

THINK CAREFULLY BEFORE BANKING WITH STANDARD BANK! It's not worth the stress!