More FNB clients’ accounts emptied

FOLLOWING a story in last week, more FNB clients have come out to share their experiences on the disappearance of their money from their accounts.

While some members of the public believed FNB’s system might have been compromised because these fraudulent transactions are taking place in countries they never visited such as France, Mallorca Island in the Meditteranean, and South Africa, FNB maintains their system is not compromised.

One of those affected, Tsumeb resident Paulo Martins, who claimed he lost money through dubious FNB transactions, told that he knows of four other people at Tsumeb who lost money in similar fashion.

A Swakopmund resident also claimed he lost his entire salary after his FNB Gold Account was “emptied” last week.

More people have come out to share their experiences, providing SMSes to confirm the transactions and in many of these cases, the clients wake up to text messages from the bank just after midnight that money has been reserved for transactions made.

Most of the SMSes seen by indicate that the transactions come in one after the other with different amounts withdrawn at oversees shops, and mostly as soon as the client’s salary had just been paid into the account.

Last week, The Namibian reported that an FNB client in Windhoek woke up to text messages from the bank alerting her of N$7 000 and N$9 000 that had been reserved for transactions made just after midnight.

One of the transactions involving N$7 753 was made at Meermin, a shoe shop at Mallorca, while the second one of N$9 432 was at Superbalist, a South African online shoe shop.

The third transaction of N$3 926 was declined because it would have exceeded the client’s daily limit.

FNB’s group communications manager, Elzita Beukes, told The Namibian that fraud queries of this nature can be managed quickly or even up to three months, depending on the nature of the transaction.

Meanwhile, FNB on Wednesday afternoon confirmed on its social media platforms that a number of its clients had experienced card fraud on their accounts “in the last few days.”

“While FNB Namibia’s own local security processes have not been compromised, these identified customers are being assisted and refunded where appropriate. Our customers remain our highest priority; (and) should anyone have any concerns regarding their card accounts, please contact our helpline (061) 299 2222 for advice or after hours if necessary to stop your card immediately at (061) 299 2999.”

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