Pretoria - Pretoria resident Sipho Shongwe got the shock of his life when his attempt at opening a First National Bank (FNB) account revealed that there already was an active account in his name and ID number.
But the failure of the Silverton branch of FNB to detain the suspected fraudster when he walked into a trap two weeks ago destroyed Shongwe’s faith in the bank’s promises to protect him and ensure ID theft did not happen under its watch.
“He was allowed to leave, walk out of the doors right under the nose of security even after fingerprint verification proved he had stolen my identity and held a fraudulent account with them,” an astounded Shongwe said.
The account had been opened at the Mahube, Mamelodi Branch, in 2011, in the same year Shongwe lost his ID. “I replaced it when it didn’t turn up and would never have imagined that it had been used afterwards,” he said.
A quick glance through the account revealed it was very active, the user having bought himself hot wings at a fast food outlet not too far from the Silverton branch on the day Shongwe discovered its existence. “All pointed to the user working and/or living in Silverton, as all activity was at stores in the immediate vicinity, and ATM machines at the Silverton branch,” he said.
Discussions with Home Affairs established that one of the most important security features on an ID was the coat-of-arms, placed strategically to overlap the picture.
“There was no coat-or-arms on the picture on the ID used to open this account, and all questions on how they processed the account with that glaring indication of fraud have yielded no answers,” he said.
A sting operation was set up by the bank to catch the fraudulent account holder. “The card was blocked to force him to go into the branch, the plan being to detain him and hand him over to the police.”
But much to Shongwe’s surprise the man was allowed to walk out of the bank two weeks ago.
“They called me to say fingerprint verification proved he was not me. And after he was informed of that he was left alone while managers were consulted, so he merely walked out and never came back.”
But, FNB’s spokeswoman Lee-Ann van Zyl, said the bank had no authority to force a client to stay in the branch. “It cannot be guaranteed thatbank staff will be able to keep a fraudster in the branch as informing and waiting on the police take time.”
She said the identity thief had left the branch while the banker referred the matter to his team leader.
Van Zyl said the bank continuously investigated and implemented new security measures to curb fraud. “Security measures to identify and verify clients upon account opening were upgraded in 2011, to include online fingerprint verification,” she said.
Fraudsters took great care to insert photographs into stolen IDs to make them look professionally done, and when the original ID was tampered with, UV and security features used as authentication prior to 2013 would register it as original, she added.
But Shongwe remained unconvinced of the bank’s commitment to ensuring the verification of identity when customers opened accounts. “The bank has failed to update me on many occasions, and it let the guy who walked into the bank and fooled staff into opening an account with my ID walk away.”
“The bank has disappointed me greatly,” he said.
Pretoria News