The complainant, who was 86 years old, fell victim to internet banking fraud. She compromised her confidential information to a third party, and as a result she suffered a loss of R48 500.00.
Our investigation ascertained that whilst the complainant was negligent as she compromised her banking details, her bank failed to follow the correct inter-bank reporting procedure as per SABRIC guidelines. SABRIC issued a document which detailed the correct contact information for the respective banks when a bank needs to report internet banking fraud.
In this instance, the complainant’s bank reported it to the wrong department at the beneficiary bank (another bank). As a result, the funds were depleted by the beneficiary by the time the fraud was eventually reported to the correct department at the beneficiary bank.
It was our finding that the customer’s bank would need to reimburse the customer in full. The bank accepted our recommendation and actioned a full refund.
Principle: Inter-bank processes are in place in the Internet Banking Fraud space to ensure that banks are able to mitigate a customer’s loss if it is in a position to do so; it is therefore very important that these processes are followed.