UBUNTU Community Chest has noted with alarm that a fraudulent operator is stealing money through unauthorised debit orders under its name.
According to Director, Gordon McDonal, for more than 12 months irate people have been calling the Ubuntu Community Chest accusing it of debiting money from their accounts.
“This is not true. A fraudulent operator is stealing money through unauthorised debit orders from these unsuspecting people’s Standard Bank accounts,” he said.
McDonald said the callers all bank with Standard Bank, have reported the amounts debited are below R100, their debit order references were all Ubuntu UCM and when querying an unauthorised and fraudulent debit order with their branch of Standard Bank, were informed that a Standard Bank employee was providing them with the Ubuntu Community Chest contact details.
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“While the Ubuntu Community Chest fundraises via debit orders through First National Bank, our reference number does not start with Ubuntu UCM.”
“Understandably people are irate by the time they call the Community Chest and are not very eager to supply us with their contact details and even less eager to give us their bank account details. We do not blame them for this, but without these details we can’t take the investigation no further,” said McDonald.
He said the Community Chest had engaged with First National Bank and Standard Bank in an attempt to identify the perpetrator of the fraud with no success.
“We would like to warn the public about the scam and assure them that the Community Chest is not making unauthorised fraudulent debit orders,” he said.
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