TYMEBANK ALLOWED THEFT OF R170K MY ELDERLY MOTHER'S SAVINGS AND REFUSE TO REIMBURSE HER

My mother is 76 years old. My father passed away in 2023 and left my mom a small lump sum which she wanted to invest in a fixed savings account. As a small business owner this would be her only nest egg towards her retirement. After extensive research, we came across TymeBank and helped her open a savings account with two fixed deposit options, for a little over R500,000. Though one must open an everyday savings account to access the fixed deposit features, she never used the account for anything other than investment – she didn’t even apply for a bank card. On the evening of 23th of January my mother, who regularly checks her savings balance, noticed unusual activity on her account and called me for assistance. Being used to driving to brick-and-mortar banks for any queries and not being very technologically savvy, she was panicking. I called TymeBank on her behalf first thing the next morning and requested an immediate block of the account. Not being the account holder they refused to divulge any more information about the transactions, but did log a ticket and assured us the account was blocked for any transactions. However, by that time, R100,000 of my mother’s money had been ******. Somehow, someone had placed numerous early withdrawal notifications on my mother’s fixed deposit account. The funds had been immediately released into her everyday savings and they’d proceeded to set up beneficiaries and EFT the funds out in a matter of minutes. She had not received any OTP or sms notifications of the withdrawals, at any time, to verify the transactions. The culprits would likely had taken all of her savings had she not had a R100,000 daily transfer limit on the account. • We proceeded to hound TymeBank with my sister, my mom and I taking turns calling (and holding for sometimes over 40 minutes just to speak to a consultant) to follow up on her query. • She logged a case with SAPs and a very helpful officer there also contacted TymeBank to investigate. • My mother wanted to immediately withdraw her remaining savings from Thyme to safeguard against further theft, but was refused “as the accounts were frozen during the investigation”. • Twice, she received messages saying that her claim was rejected, but we persevered and kept calling, following up and talking to SAPs about their investigation, making sure the case was kept open. • It then became apparent that *after the account had been blocked on the 24th of January*, it was UNBLOCKED and another R70,000 had been released from fixed deposit and once again EFTd to an unknown recipient! TymeBank had allowed this to happen whilst supposedly "investigating the case" • My mother even approached an attorney to write a letter to TymeBank to attempt a positive resolution. • This evoked a slight response, with Thyme apparently digging deeper and finding that the recipient account was with Standard Bank. • She was told that they’d have to retrieve the funds from Standard Bank in order to reimburse her. • Finally, two days ago my mom was advised telephonically by a TymeBank consultant that her claim was rejected. She could not get her money back and the case was being closed because (obviously!) the funds had been withdrawn from the recipient account at Standard Bank. There was no apology and no acceptance of accountability. This situation has taken a massive emotional and mental health toll on my mother. My dad passed in 2023, my brother in 2024 and then this happened. She is in pieces, and we don’t know how to help her beyond what has already been done. We all thought that a bank could be trusted to safeguard precious savings but they've left my elderly mother out in the cold.