Weak cyber security on online banking, cover up and poor customer service

I am a customer of Standard Bank SA Ltd with account number *** who was de*****ed. I would accordingly like to lodge a complaint against my said bank and alert other unsuspecting customers out there that their sensitive information is not secure. I had an unfortunate incident of being ****** on the 6th May 2025 by way of *****. The assailants got into my internet banking without the password and without my authorisation. They first transferred R20,000.00 which was in my investment account into my transmission account. There is an audit trail that the bank could have utilised to follow and to trace the money but seemingly, they ignored those basics.

The *****sters thereafter paid out R27,970.00 to a certain Ndwandwe’s bank account number *** which I traced on the statement to Capitec. The irony of it all is that Standard Bank didn’t contact me to ascertain if I knew about this lump sum payment. I believe that this may have been an inside job and that the ********s were working with an employee of the bank. My device is registered for internet banking and through their App hence the ********s would have had to be assisted by someone internally at Standard Bank. The *****sters completely cleaned both my accounts and obviously with possible assistance internally or at least I suspect so because how else did they find out about the investment account. The assailants also reversed my old debit orders which had already been paid and yet again, nobody from Standard Bank contacted me to ascertain if these reversal requests were really being done by myself. The norm is that whenever someone disputes a debit order or card payment, the banks tell you it will take 7 – 10 days. In this regard however, all debit orders were reversed immediately which proves my point in that the ********s were somehow working with a Standard Bank employee. For instance, both my cellphone and email are linked to my account hence I should have received timeous notifications and realtime to this effect.

I immediately realised when I was paying that something was wrong and then reported it to the ***** department at Standard Bank. It was then, during the verification process, that I realised that my SIM card had been swapped. In this regard, one of them removed it from my cellphone and inserted a foreign SIM card. But even so, the assailants would still have needed either my password or fingerprint or face in order to gain access to my account and authorise those transactions. None of these steps however happened hence I don’t understand how they succeeded nor can I accept the explanation from the bank that there is nothing that can or could do about it.

As a pensioner, how my hard-earned money was paid out through an EFT to someone that I don’t even know, remains a mystery? Surely, Standard Bank could have picked up that I don’t usually make such lump sums and least of all that particular recipient. I believe that they therefore, should have stopped those payments or at least their ***** department could have contacted me to ascertain if I knew about it or alert me a large payout from my account. I spoke to Zaahidah Thring who was not much of assistance and I asked he to escalate to a Manager or Team Leader.

She said that Vuyani Mnisi or Mable Nkosi would contact me about the case when I lodged a formal complaint with Standard Bank. The person, a lady by the name of Aliwani Netshumi who was ultimately tasked with investigating my case number 063569 on 18th May. She didn’t even contact me nor talk to me nor interview anyone and neither didshe email me for that matter. I had also afterwards spoken to Onica Maseti who made me wait for long on the phone and thereafter Matsobane Makweya whom I spoke to Unathi on the 23rd May but the latter refused to provide her surname. Notably, I spoke to Cathrine Fephobya and Khensani on the 29th May, all in an effort to get a speedy resolution to my complaint and case. I was then suddenly told that she filed a report and the question which begs to be answered is how can a report be filed when neither side has been heard?. How is it that someone can complete a report without either speaking to me as a victim nor interviewing the ********s? The investigator clearly **** about it and claimed that she had tried to contact me several times but there was no call record thereof. If she had indeed attempted to contact me, then surely, she could have sent an email too in order to alert me that she was struggling to reach me and that she tried unsuccessfully to do so.

To make matters worse, after the so-called investigation, I was sent a proposal of a gratuitous or goodwill payment. This is a lowly amount of R6600 which came with conditions in that I must not divulge it or I was to be sworn to secrecy about the settlement. This smacks of a cover up and I therefore rejected it. I maintain that since I did not make any EFT payments, therefore all my money should be returned. Why didn’t Standard Bank alert Capitec that ***** had been committed through an account that is held in their books? This doesn’t seem to have been done either which is very strange to say the least. I believe that given the time interval and frame within which I was able to report the crime, there is no way and/or it is unlikely that the ********s would have had adequate time to withdraw all the funds in that Capitec bank account.

The account in question is have been blocked so that the R30,000.00 that was taken from my account would be reversed. Also, considering that the ********s also reversed my debit orders surely someone must have been recorded making that request. A debit order dispute form would have been completed to reverse the debit orders and that would not have been my signature that was appended in those forms. The other strange part is that no case has reportedly been opened with the police by Standard Bank. I would have thought that those are enough grounds of opening a cyber crime and have the law enforcement authorities investigate it. Why is this investigation therefore being closed so quickly without a proper investigation?

And why is it being closed without exhausting all the channels? Whoever the beneficiary of that account at Capitec would have produced documentation to open it which would have had their ID, employment details and proof of address at least, which is a requirement of the FIC Act, that the source of funds must be established otherwise how was that account opened whose owner cannot be traced through their documents? I must say that that is a very lame excuse that the two banks are providing (if at all). I would therefore like to first warn other clients of the two banks to be alert and to ensure that their accounts can’t be accessed without their knowledge. The bank, as far as I am concerned, owes me money because those transactions were not done through my cellphone and without my permission.

I will also lodge a formal complaint with the Banking Ombudsman which has now been renamed National Financial Ombud of South Africa because it amalgamated three different sector I.e. banking and insurance which is split into short term and long term insurance. I am really aggrieved with how this case has been handled and for someone to de***** a pensioner is shameful. Even more shameful is that my bank didn’t protect me nor did it conduct a proper investigation nor did it hold anyone to account.

So be warned!!!