Std Bank no response to hacked account

In Feb we decided to open an account at Standard Bank for my son who is in matric so that he could save the money he gets and he deposited R1500 into his account.

In April my son got a message saying he needs to make a deposit into his account which I found strange seeing that he had money in his account so I decided to register for online banking seeing that we were under lock down and to my horror I found his account in overdraft.

Looking through the statement it was clear his account had been hacked, on the 25th and 26th Feb he made a purchase at his school for some eats for him and his sister as well as an amount at PnP Xpress on the 26th. But from the 28th one can see the attempts to clear out his account start. We can see anything from 2-4 attempts a day to clear out the account until such time as it was successful.

The other purchase my son made was on 24th March for an amount of R60 via Steam for online gaming and he did try again at a later date but the purchase would not go through because the account had been cleaned out by that point but more worryingly the account was now over R600 overdrawn. I called Std Bank’s ***** department to immediately who gave us a reference number and said they would investigate and revert back.

Since then we have heard nothing from Standard Bank and the account remains overdrawn and even more ridiculously they continue to charge overdrawn interest, how is this even possible! Some basic questions remain unanswered… How was it so easy for his account to be hacked after purchases at two legitimate pay points i.e. at school and at PnP express? How is it that Standard Bank knowingly allows a student account going into overdraft when none had been signed for? How is it possible in today’s advanced technology era, the era of AI, that hackers can target an account 2-4 times per day almost EVERY day and none of Std Banks system flagged this, despite banking in RSA having amongst the highest fees in the world? How is it possible that when an account goes into overdraft even though none was signed for that no phone call occurs but the deductions continue to a point where a student’s account is overdrawn by over R600? Why does it take so long for a simple investigation to take place, the evidence is there on the statement for all to see. How does this install confidence in my two young children (or any other) who were convince by me that the best thing to do was to put the money in an account rather than keep it in their cupboards, that their money is safe? Why does it always take a review via such a platform for action to take place, and NO DON’T blame lock down!