R200,000 SIM-swap fraud not an inside job: FNB

FNB has strongly refuted the claims that R200,000 stolen from one of its clients, Gail Jacklin, was an inside job.

The statement from the bank comes after Jacklin’s private consulting forensic scientist, David Klatzow, said evidence seems to point to an inside job.

“The evidence seems to show that there is somebody within the bank and within MTN who has access to your details,” Klatzow told Fin24.

This FNB insider then allegedly works with somebody at MTN to arrange for the SIM-swap necessary to commit the crime, he said.

However, the head of growth and acquisitions at FNB, Marcel Klaassen, said this is not possible.

“FNB assures its customers that all protective measures on its systems are secure and that fraud cannot occur unless fraudsters obtain customers’ confidential details via phishing, SMS, or SIM swaps.”

Klaassen said that clients who believe they are victims of fraud should approach the bank immediately.

“We urge our customers to protect their login details at all times and to ensure they are using anti-phishing and anti-virus software, as provided free by FNB Online Banking.”

MTN makes security tool for banks free

While MTN did not answer questions regarding whether an insider helped perform the SIM swap in this instance, it did acknowledge the problem of SIM-swap fraud.

The company said it has put security systems in place to deal with the scourge, but said individuals will always explore ways of circumventing such systems.

“It is unfortunately a continuous process as criminal elements always find ways to improve their fraudulent methods,” said MTN.

MTN said it has provided a feature called Subscriber Identity for Third Parties (SIFT) to banks since 2009, which gives banks real-time alerts on changes in SIM card numbers.

MTN said SIFT, originally available at a nominal cost, goes a long way to mitigate bank fraud risk.

“This solution will now be zero rated. MTN hopes that by zero rating this solution it will be widely used by the banking industry.”

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