It’s now well over two months since R150,000 was stolen from our Nedbank account, which the bank claims was due to a phishing & sim swap procedure. I like to think I’m reasonably savvy when it comes to suspicious e-mails & online banking and the Internet in general, so most certainly did not provide my banking details to any website.

So far I’ve drawn a blank in terms of establishing any finite details from Nedbank or Vodacom.

Nedbank sent a letter saying they could do nothing to recover funds, claiming they were withdrawn before they could be blocked, but haven't said and refusing to advise to which account the money was sent. In short, the tenor of their letter, after banking with them for almost 40 years is one of, "an unfortunate situation, next customer please or F.U.”

The loss was established when I was unable to log in on a Tuesday morning, apparently the theft was on Saturday. When queried as to why we had not been informed, the reply was “yes another person said that yesterday”.

Our business manager was challenged as to why we were only advised three days after the event, the reply was “unfortunately the theft was committed on Saturda”. He further advised that we might wish to consider an additional level of security at R135 pm and to install the Trusteer report program!! (We have had Trusteer since inception, but understand it also can be compromised).

When asked how our set maximum payment limit was exceeded enabling an increase to equal our inter account limit. “That can be done on line” was the reply. How daft is that without background checks. Why it is so easy to increase the limit, I fail to understand. I am still awaiting a response.

Many weeks have passed since requesting the account number details and exact timing, etc. of all events and I have received nothing from Nedbank.

We are also awaiting a response from the Nedbank's Ombudsman whom I contacted about a week after the event, despite a promise of a reference number within 48 hours.

Likewise with Vodacom, we were informed the sim swap was done fraudulently in Midrand but that is the only information Vodacom has so far provided, other than saying that it’s the result of fraud that has been perpetrated on me by a very well organised syndicate and they are currently working and liaising with the Police (Hawks) and the banking institutions for further investigation to identify these fraudsters. The investigations are on-going.
I was under the impression that the service provider has to take a copy of ID and other details before issuing a new sim. How then did this happen? Why is there no accountability from Vodacom?

It just doesn’t seem right that one is been treated with such disregard and two large corporations are continuing with a ‘business as usual’ attitude.

Having discussed this in various quarters, I'm led to believe Nedbank's security is not so secure as other banks and almost all of individuals I have spoken to who are familiar with banking or phone-related theft have said it usually starts inside the bank and associates in the cell phone company.

I would appreciate any comments.