Card fraud has increased recently, which has led Postbank to prohibit some award payment options. For the month of December, Sassa has recommended its customers adopt alternative payment options.
The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has instructed grant recipients to pick up their December grant payments from merchants. This comes after Postbank decided to stop allowing ATM withdrawals.
The move by Postbank was made in response to the recent rise in card fraud. Sassa grant recipients are recommended to pick up their grants from the following merchants to avoid this fraudulent activity:
- Shoprite
- Checkers
- Pick n Pay
- USave
- Boxer
- Spar
- OK
Postbank revealed in Parliament a few months ago that they had encountered fraud. Since then, they have put safeguards in place in their system to identify how the fraudulent conduct occurred. Postbank was able to determine that the card fraud occurred via ATMs as a result of the steps.
The corporation is currently being examined, according to Postbank spokeswoman Dr. Bongani Diako, who claimed there were signs of nefarious conduct within the organization. It’s safe to assume that the systems gathered enough data for us to decide that we should stop using ATMs to make payments, according to Diako.
According to Diako, many grant recipients ought to be aware of the situation because social media has covered the statement that recipients should pick up their social grants from merchants. Diako expressed regret for the trouble caused to customers who previously paid with an ATM but now have to move to collecting their award from merchants.
According to Postbank, the ATM grant payment mechanism would only be stopped in December. In order to secure their system and bring it back up, their team has continued to make progress.
The business aspires to resume operations as soon as feasible. All Sassa beneficiaries will be notified via the media or social media outlets as soon as ATM payments resume.
