THE Credit Ombud said yesterday that fraud remained a grave concern as it reported that it had closed 62 percent of cases in favour of consumers in 2020.
Speaking during the virtual launch of the Credit Ombud’s 2020 annual report, head of case management, Lee Soobrathi told journalists that fraud was rife in South Africa.
“Fraud essentially permeates every facet in every industry; it does not matter what position you have, you do have the risk of having your identity stolen and losing your finances due to being defrauded,” said Soobrathi.
Soobrathi said consumers often approached the Credit Ombud with complaints that their retail accounts had been duplicated and their identities stolen to open duplicate accounts with retailer credit providers.
However, sometimes consumers could not provide proof that their identities had been stolen.
“A consumer who was defrauded a week ago and had taken steps to try to mitigate their circumstances is different from a consumer who was defrauded in 2014 and does nothing to mitigate their circumstances. That raises an alarm bell,” Soobrathi said. In 2020, the Credit Ombud dealt with 30 120 calls from consumers which generated 16 338 complaints and general enquiries. Around 3 143 disputes were opened and 3 111 disputes were closed.
The Credit Ombud said disputes closed in favour of the consumers increased to 62 percent compared to 57 percent a year earlier.
“These complaints relate to credit information and non-bank credit agreements,” said Soobrathi.
Consumers were saved around R3.44 million, and on average it took the Credit Ombud 46 days to resolve disputes.
The Credit Ombud retrenched 40 percent of its staff and reduced the size of its council after the Banking Association of South Africa agreed that the Credit Ombud would longer deal with matters from consumers against banks.These matters are now dealt with by the Ombud for Banking Services.
Income was R11.9 million and expenditure R9.2 million.
Interim Credit Ombud Howard Gabriels said the Credit Ombud signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the National Credit Regulator (NCR) in 2020.
“Since we signed the MOU with the NCR we have worked so closely to facilitate the transfer of calls. In part it is building relationships,” said the Credit Ombud. | [email protected]
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