ID thief nicks R21 000
2009-12-23 22:24
Johannesburg - A man from Benoni's holiday was cut short when he realised an identity thief had stolen about R21 000 from his bank account.
Shaun Taylor, 22, from Rynfield, was so broke he had to borrow money to fill his car for the trip home.
He said he'd been getting regular SMSs saying that money had been withdrawn from his FNB account.
"I was on holiday at Warmbaths (Bela Bela) when I saw that, all-of-a-sudden, R19 000 had been withdrawn from my account. I knew right then that something must be wrong," Taylor said on Wednesday.
The money was withdrawn from his account by means of FNB's cellphone banking service, and deposited into the account of a certain Z Lekakala at The Bank of Athens.
Before that, cellphone airtime was bought from Taylor's account in a long list of transactions, and fund transfers were also done. These amounted to about R2 000.
Taylor immediately contacted the bank to stop all internet and cellphone banking services connected to his savings account.
Steve Higgins, FNB spokesperson, confirmed that Taylor had been the victim of identity theft and fraud.
"We've finished a preliminary investigation which indicates that Taylor's SIM card was cloned earlier this week, when he wanted to do a SIM swop at a [MTN] shop." "No FNB staff are involved in the fraud," Higgins emphasised.
On Wednesday Taylor remembered that someone had called him last Monday to confirm his banking details. He refused to give them.
He said his SIM card didn't work for a while after the swop. He suspects that was when the cloning took place.
On Wednesday afternoon, FNB told him the money will be paid back into his account on Thursday.
Higgins warned that FNB would never ask for banking details over the phone.