Bank repays pensioner after card thieves withdraw more than R13K
The pensioner, who was robbed in May, can now give a sigh of relief after the bank repaid the stolen money.
Stoffel Reynders. Image: Christiaan Cloete
Meyerton resident, Stoffel Reynders of Meyerton confirmed on Tuesday that First National Bank (FNB) had repaid him the full amount after the bank’s fraud department investigated after he was robbed R13,895.48 by card thieves in May.
Reynders told Sedibeng Ster that he felt relieved and very grateful.
He was at the ATM before Pick n Pay in Meyerton on 25 May to withdraw money when the thugs grabbed his card with him.
“I was standing in a row. The man in front of me used the sofa and when he was done he stood on the corner. When I got to the ATM and pushed my card into the slot, another man came and punched me from the side.
It was just so soupy, then they got the card and they just left. It was so fast and I was so surprised as I still thought I had the card in my hand,” he said.
According to Reynders, the thugs allegedly cloned his card in a car – “and then they blasted”.
The suspect reportedly withdrew R3,000 at the first attempt, while at the second attempt they withdrew R1,000 a minute later and then withdrew R9,895.48.
Meanwhile, the South African Banking Risk Information Centre (Sabric) released its annual crime stats for 2019 on behalf of the banking industry which revealed that credit card and debit card fraud increased by 20.5% between 2018 and 2019.
Sabric CEO Nischal Mewalall said in a statement: “The increase in credit card fraud must be viewed against the growth of the credit card payment ecosystem which has seen a rise in the number of credit card transactions processed by banks, coupled with increases in the number of cardholders and merchants. This would have contributed to more incidents.”
66.6% of all fraud on South Africa issued credit cards took place on merchant devices in a foreign country while the counterfeiting of cards decreased by 44.8% for credit cards and by 34.8% for debit cards.
This article first appeared on Sedibeng Ster and was republished with permission.
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