{"id":76866,"date":"2013-04-30T22:23:46","date_gmt":"2013-04-30T20:23:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=76866"},"modified":"2013-05-09T17:42:04","modified_gmt":"2013-05-09T15:42:04","slug":"serious-absa-internet-banking-security-concerns","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/banking\/76866-serious-absa-internet-banking-security-concerns.html","title":{"rendered":"Serious ABSA Internet banking security concerns"},"content":{"rendered":"

There is growing concern among ABSA<\/a> clients that their money may not be safe at the bank amidst the spate of SIM swap fraud which is costing ABSA clients thousands.<\/p>\n

Over the last few weeks there were numerous reports of large sums of money being lost due to SIM swap fraud \u2013 often linked to MTN<\/a> and ABSA customers.<\/p>\n

In the latest case fraudsters stole R360,000 from Media24<\/a> CEO Esmare Weideman<\/a>, who is also an MTN and ABSA customer.<\/p>\n

Weideman said that ABSA is a recurring theme in the SIM swap scam. \u201cEvery mail and call I got today about similar internet fraud experiences involved ABSA,\u201d said Weideman.<\/p>\n

According to a report in Die Burger an MTN employee said that a syndicate within MTN and ABSA are organising these crimes.<\/p>\n

While the details about the scam remain sketchy, people who have fallen prey to these themes do not seem to have any joy in trying to recover the funds.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office was inundated today by callers who had same internet fraud experiences. Not one got their money back,\u201d said Weideman.<\/p>\n

\"Esmare<\/a>

Esmare Weideman<\/p><\/div>\n

We are not liable: MTN<\/h3>\n

MTN made it clear that they are not liable for money lost in SIM swap fraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo commit a fraud on a customer\u2019s bank account a fraudster must have a customer\u2019s bank card\/account number, Internet Banking PIN and password,\u201d explained MTN\u2019s chief customer experience officer Eddie Moyce<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur courts have already held that a SIM swap does not in itself enable a fraudster to commit fraud on a customer\u2019s bank account.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Eddie<\/a>

Eddie Moyce<\/p><\/div>\n

ABSA not providing details on SIM swap fraud<\/h3>\n

ABSA also does not seem to be taking any responsibility. Weideman said that ABSA is \u201chell bent to prove this was my fault\u201d.<\/p>\n

ABSA was asked about the spate of SIM swap fraud and whether security weaknesses within the bank may provide fraudsters with access to clients\u2019 Internet banking, but they would not answer these questions.<\/p>\n

ABSA was also asked whether they would advise clients to move their funds away from ABSA until the bank could establish the weaknesses which are behind the SIM swap fraud cases, but again they did not provide an answer.<\/p>\n

Instead of answering questions on the bank\u2019s security, ABSA provided the following answer:<\/p>\n

ABSA was able to proactively identify suspicious activity on the customer\u2019s account and immediately alerted the customer, froze the internet banking profile and prevented any further transactions, mitigating further loss.<\/p>\n

ABSA has contacted the customer and will carry out a full forensic investigation. We can only comment on the specifics of this case upon receipt of the investigators findings.<\/p>\n

ABSA strives to keep its customers\u2019 money safe. We treat fraud that is committed on any of our customers\u2019 accounts with high priority.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The lack of information from ABSA regarding the prevalence of SIM swap fraud at the bank is raising concerns among ABSA customers that their money is at risk of being stolen by SIM swap fraudsters.<\/p>\n

It is currently uncertain whether phishing attacks are always needed to gain access to ABSA clients\u2019 Internet banking details.<\/p>\n

At least one ABSA client, Gail Peddie, who had R67,500 removed from her ABSA account, said that she definitely did not respond to any phishing e-mails or divulge her PIN codes or passwords.<\/p>\n

It is also not certain whether SIM swaps may be done pro-actively to give fraudsters the ability to steal money from Internet banking accounts.<\/p>\n

More detailed information from MTN and ABSA regarding SIM swap fraud may serve to calm their customers\u2019 fears and assure them that their accounts are not at risk. That is, of course, if the security problems do not exist in ABSA and MTN itself.<\/p>\n

More about SIM swap banking fraud<\/h3>\n

MTN, ABSA client loses R360,000 in SIM swap fraud<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

SIM swap banking scam: what you should know<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

How scammers hack your bank account<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

R97,000 SIM swap scam: MTN denies liability<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Warning! SIM swap fraud on the rise<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABSA mum on whether their employees or systems are to blame for fraudsters stealing thousands from their Internet banking customers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":72586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10106],"tags":[2186,165,35,42,12743],"class_list":["post-76866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-banking","tag-absa","tag-fraud","tag-headline","tag-mtn","tag-sim-swap"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76866"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76880,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76866\/revisions\/76880"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}