Media24 boss conned out of R360 000

yebocan

yebocan

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Cape Town - Media24's CEO Esmaré Weideman has become the latest victim of a SIM-swap syndicate when she was robbed of R360 000 over the weekend.

Between Saturday and Monday and without her knowledge, an amount of R1.5m was transferred from Weideman's home loan to her cheque account. Before Absa could freeze her account, smaller amounts to a total of R360 000 were transferred to an account in the name of "Badiba Madiba".

Weideman told Die Burger that her SIM card would not work on Sunday. “Yesterday (Monday) I asked my assistant to contact MTN, but according to MTN there was nothing wrong.

“Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Absa’s internet fraud unit, who told me that my internet service has been stopped and that money had been withdrawn from my account," Weideman said.

She said when she reported the case at the Rondebosch police station, she met a couple who had lost R5 000 in the same way.

Absa said they are investigating the incident.

Have you been scammed? Share your experience and get published.

Cape Town - Media24's CEO Esmaré Weideman has become the latest victim of a SIM-swap syndicate when she was robbed of R360 000 over the weekend.

Between Saturday and Monday and without her knowledge, an amount of R1.5m was transferred from Weideman's home loan to her cheque account. Before Absa could freeze her account, smaller amounts to a total of R360 000 were transferred to an account in the name of "Badiba Madiba".

Weideman told Die Burger that her SIM card would not work on Sunday. “Yesterday (Monday) I asked my assistant to contact MTN, but according to MTN there was nothing wrong.

“Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Absa’s internet fraud unit, who told me that my internet service has been stopped and that money had been withdrawn from my account," Weideman said.

She said when she reported the case at the Rondebosch police station, she met a couple who had lost R5 000 in the same way.

Absa said they are investigating the incident."

I smell a moerse syndicate,....

http://www.fin24.com/Companies/Financial-Services/Media24-boss-conned-out-of-R360-000-20130430
 
I find this amusing as I consider MTN and ABSA to be the worst companies in SA - their service is shocking, their staff useless, so it comes as no suprise that this is continually happening, and that both of them are involved.
 
I wonder how they manage to get the ABSA internet PIN and Password? It sounds more than a SIM-swap syndicate. More like a MTN-ABSA inside syndicate.
 
Sorry this happened, but glad it's happened to who it has. Now there'll be some real big publicity and pressure on MTN and ABSA to sort their **** out.
 
Sinbad said:
Sorry this happened, but glad it's happened to who it has. Now there'll be some real big publicity and pressure on MTN and ABSA to sort their **** out.
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100%

**** MTN & ABSA. I hope this tarnishes their reputations for years to come.
 
Sinbad said:
Sorry this happened, but glad it's happened to who it has. Now there'll be some real big publicity and pressure on MTN and ABSA to sort their **** out.
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Agree as well... They wouldn't care if it were you or I but those (potential) front page headlines an double page spreads will hurt. Also, people don't forget so the next time they make the news for a negative reason, this will be brought into the discussion as well.
Finally, if they are aware of a "syndicate", why not arrest these guys? I'd assume there would be some login procedures and how difficult can it be to track?
 
Wow another one. Between the two of them (MTN and ABSA) they really need to be a lot more proactive about sorting this out.

MTN (and all the other networks) should also be tightening up everything regarding sim swaps. Systematically, might take a while to build some added checks into the systems, e.g. locking the ability to do sim swaps after business hours, implementing two step verification before a swap can be done, RSA dongles to authorise swaps etc.

While that takes place, i think they should be, manually checking each swap done, checking the paper work etc. they need start showing some initiative instead of saying its not us at fault.

From Absa's side i am not sure how much they can change to their systems, but clearly on that side, the details are either being compromised by a staff member or something else is wrong.

I cant see all these incidents being triggered just by a phising syndicate.
 
What is also scary is that despite the media attention on this, they guys carrying this out haven't stopped. It seems like they going after more and more - further evidence that both MTN and Absa are doing nothing.
 
funny do internet banking with nedbank you have send a sms verifcation pin only you know an that can only be changed in person at branch when you make payements or move funds between account
 
The_Librarian said:
People just need to move en masse away from Blapsa and MTN...
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done in 2009 with MTN and they haven't managed to close my account... every year I lodge a dispute with transunion, and every year the feedback is that its now closed.
 
xrapidx said:
done in 2009 with MTN and they haven't managed to close my account... every year I lodge a dispute with transunion, and every year the feedback is that its now closed.
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:D You gotta love that :D

Choccy applied for a contract (a couple of years back) when they were still good.

We waited for more than a week. When they finally phoned to say the phone can be collected, choccy told them to get lost.

Haven't signed any paperwork, so they could do sweet FA :D

Haven't heard from them since.

We went over to CellC after that.
 
Illegal sim-swops and the cellular operators take no responsibility? Why was RICA forced on us (proof of identity & address) if not to prevent this kinda crime?
 
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Move away from ABSA and MTN... we all know they are pathetic.
 
evilstebunny said:
Illegal sim-swops and the cellular operators take no responsibility? Why was RICA forced on us (proof of identity & address) if not to prevent this kinda crime?
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It doesn't help when there are people working on the inside of the SP.
 
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