Banking details confirmation scam

[Marq]

I have been through the bank ombudsman, with a long story that happened some years back involving ABSA's ability to divulge private and confidential information without the necessary subpoenas and legal paperwork.

Outcome was that after a long run around, they decided that the bank was guilty and offered to fine them R500 if I would sign a confidentiality number and go away. Considering that ABSA created a R200k problem, this was a drop in the ocean and the whole thing lapsed with them keeping their measly R500.

It was obvious during the process that the banking ombudsman is just another branch of the general banking world trying to get the public to go away by wearing them down through legal and heavy paperwork requirements and by just dragging it on month after month. This reference number story is just one more piece of evidence of that liability to show you they are in charge from the start and you are likely to get nowhere.

Needless to say Absa is still not my choice of bank.

I have also tried the Estate Agent Board, the Insurance Ombudsman, the Medical Council, the Natal Legal Society. I have also tried the Office of Consumer Protection. Not once have I had any form of success.

The funniest of them all (cause they are all a joke and a waste of time) was the legal Tip Offs Anonymous - the legal help line set up by the legal society at one stage.
So I phoned in and started the complaint acting anonymously and telling my tale of woe.
OK - says the helpline 'consultant', 'tell me who are the parties to the case'.
'I can't tell or that would not be anonymous'.
'Well then how do we let the Attorneys know which case they have a problem with - so they can investigate and report back to us".
"You don't this is your anonymous tip off that you have corrupt dishonest lawyers in your midst".
"Well we cannot take your complaint unless we know who you are".

Well I eventually gave them all the details and took on the attorneys through them but soon realised that the law society is there for...well their members only and they have no intention of letting you dirty their apparently already tarnished hallowed halls.

This stuff needs time and patience and no expectations. They will promise the earth and deliver dirt in the end. Your stuff is always in the system but somehow never comes out of it. At some stage you forget about the problem and everyone goes on with their lives and the ombudsman smiles and tells all how they solved many problems and have no unhappiness out there in the big wide world.

[Dave A]

Perhaps there is a procedure for when the bank refuses to give you a reference number. As actions go (or lack of it), it isn't that far away from a tacit admission of guilt.

Or gross incompetence, which also should fall foul of acceptable standards.

Yvonne, perhaps amongst all your other endeavours to get this resolved, go back to the ombudsman and say the bank is refusing to give a reference number.

[Yvonne]

I am not comfortable with naming the bank as in past threads I have claimed there is a possibility of a further fraud on her account.

That's the major frustration, there might not be, everything may be in order, but we have no means to verify this!
We were misinformed when we thought her funds had been withdrawn, we were subsequently told that this previous information was in fact incorrect.

When the original fraud happened, our daughter was required by the bank to sign a non-disclosure confidentiality form before her funds were returned to her account.
This was done within 24 hours, so there is no way that the bank had any reservation about any possibility of our daughter trying to fraudulently claim that funds had been withdrawn, even bank charges reversed.
It happened on our company account on the same date. So without question it was an "inside" job.

Right now, trying to submit evidence to the Ombudsman is a problem, as we did not bring all the documents with us when we left in April. (Here for 3 months!) the bank had agreed to send her the bank statements to her US address, so we hoped the problem had been solved.

This way, monthly bank charges are going to accumulate, as she has no access to her account whatsoever, and is unable to even close it!
I bet the second her account is in the red, they will have the ability to contact her without any problem.
It is the sheer hopelessness of the situation that is the major frustration.

Marq, I feel there is only just so much you can try to do, which you very obviously did!

I am finding more and more situations where we have been literally taken for a ride, the legal recourse option is not possible as not many of us can afford to throw good money after bad, and it seems as if accepting losses that we have no choice but to absorb, are becoming the norm.

In many instances the system is failing us, the more technology involved, the more difficult it is to cope with the system, especially banks.
It seems as if all "human thought" has disappeard and even though we talk to humans, it vanishes into the system, as if they were a machine!

Yvonne