Absa says the latest of its fraud cases to make the news involved "social engineering", with the Internet being used to transfer the victim`s funds out of his account. Absa says the incident was "not a hack".
Absa, one of the country`s largest banks, is still reeling from revelations about an alleged fraud committed in Bellville, north of Cape Town. In that case, about R690 000 was taken out of at least 10 accounts.
The latest incident occurred in KwaZulu-Natal and was reported by the SABC yesterday.
According to the reports, Absa client Vusimuzi Bhengu lost R52 000 when money was transferred from his accounts to those of 10 different people. Absa also denied SABC reports that the Empangeni police are investigating 10 cases of Internet fraud from Absa accounts.
Errol Smith, Absa media relationship manager, told ITWeb that the fraudsters somehow managed to obtain identity documents that identified them as Bhengu and some of his account details, but not his personal identification number (PIN). They then used these details to open a parallel account that had Internet banking authority with its own passwords and PIN. They used that account to electronically transfer the money out of Bhengu`s official account.
"This type of fraud is well known to the banks. However, when conducting an investigation, we have to first prove that the customer was not negligent," he says.
In cases such as this, negligence is defined as a case in which the customer has compromised his or her own PIN by giving it to an unauthorised person.
"With this case, it was the bank that was defrauded and not the customer, so we were more than happy to recompense him," Smith says.
All the commercial banks are in a constant battle against fraud attempts, he says, but customer accounts are safe as the banks are constantly strengthening their own internal auditing and forensic investigation abilities.
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