Festive celebrations for fraud victim
A Mtunzini fraud victim had a surprise Christmas gift when he received a letter stating his stolen funds would be reimbursed
MTUNZINI resident John Thomas, who lost R70 000 in a SIM swap scam earlier this year, on Christmas Eve received confirmation that he will be reimbursed the full amount.
‘After months of no communication and thinking my case would never be resolved, I received a letter from Nedbank on Christmas Eve,’ said Thomas.
‘It said the full amount would be reimbursed in due course’.
A perturbed Thomas said the offer letter from Nedbank’s attorney was dated 29 October and was not signed.
It also stated that Thomas had 21 days to accept their offer in writing.
Considering his inability to respond to the offer within the stipulated 21 days, Thomas was concerned it would become invalid.
However, after contacting the attorney as soon as he received the letter on Christmas Eve, Thomas received the R70 000 in his bank account on Tuesday.
While happy he can now finally put the experience behind him, Thomas feels the way in which his case was handled, the fact that both Nedbank and MTN failed to communicate with him throughout the ordeal, left him exasperated and convinced his stolen money for which he worked so hard was gone for good.
No contact
‘While the investigating officers interviewed MTN at the outset and confirmed they knew all about my case, the service provider has not once contacted me,’ said Thomas. Furthermore, neither the Communications Ombudsman nor the Banking Ombudsman responded to his communication with them.
In both John Thomas and Miriam Janse van Vuuren’s cases, it was their banks that reimbursed their stolen money, with their cell phone companies accepting no responsibility. Neither Nedbank in Thomas’ case nor FNB in Van Vuuren’s case accepted responsibility for the illegal withdrawal of funds.
IM swap scams are the latest in technological fraud whereby a victim’s cell phone SIM card is fraudulently deactivated and a new number issued. The fraudsters then gain access to the victim’s bank details and drain their accounts.
It is thought that for the scam to work, corrupt employees at both the victim’s bank and cell phone service provider are involved.
