Man loses thousands in bank card fraud, Carletonville

An unsuspecting member of the public became the victim of multiple bank fraud and lost thousands at the main branch of FNB in Carletonville at around 19:30 on 1 August. According to the 37-year-old victim, Mr Mpho Makhalemele, he entered the ATM court and found someone busy at one of the machines. Another person was standing on the side of ATM where the security guards usually stand. Makhalemele was planning to deposit an amount of R5 000 in cash. He tried three of the ATMs without success before the other user struck up a conversation and told him that the machines were giving problems. He suggested that he try the one he was standing at but, once again, the victim inserted his card and tried to cancel it when he could not carry out any transaction. The ‘good samaritan’, who was now positioned behind Makhalemele, claimed that he had inserted the card wrongly and grabbed it as it came out of the machine and inserted it again. Still unsuspecting, the victim proceeded to insert his pin which, the machine indicated, was incorrect. When he tried to cancel the transaction, his card remained in the ATM and he immediately tried to block it. By the time he had notified the call centre consultants about the matter, they informed him that two amounts Z of R2 000 and R3 000 respectively, had been withdrawn at Friendly Grocer. When he got into his car, he received two more notifications of transactions totalling around R10 000 that had been done at Overland bottle store in Oberholzer. By the time he got to the store, it had already closed and he had to wait until the next day. When he took two policemen along to make enquiries on Tuesday, he spoke to the owner who allegedly refused to show them the footage. The police took him to the police station for questioning but
he was later released. The owner denied any knowledge of the incident and said only that he saw people buying whisky. The two transaction slips were found onthe premises, however. A case of fraud has been opened for an amount of R15 000 and investigations are continuing.