A number of scams surfaced in the previous year, releasing information that had gone viral online whilst alleging that this information comes from the government agency, the South African Social Security Agency (Sassa).
In the last payment cycle for 2022, Postbank picked up suspicious activity in its systems, which posed a cyber security threat for Sassa grant beneficiaries that use the gold payment card to withdraw their funds at ATMs.
This is worrisome, as almost 50% of South Africans rely and benefit from the financial government assistance in the form of social grants. In a government statement, the Mpumalanga Sassa branch has announced:
We assure beneficiaries that the payment gold card is still valid and it will remain active.
Social grant beneficiaries have been urged to not panic or succumb to the hijacking by scammers and circulating fake news that the card will expire in April 2023.
According to the Postbank spokesperson, Dr. Bongani Diako, Post bank has appealed to beneficiaries to ignore rumours circulating regarding the Sassa gold payment card.
Social grant recipients will be alerted of any changes regarding their grants in time should any changes occur.
Fraudsters who pose to be Sassa officials, targeting old age people and people living with disability in their residence, ought to be immediately reported to the local police.
Sassa has also clarified that the payment gold card is still authentic, even though there is an expiry date.
Sassa spokesperson, Paseka Letsatsi also mentioned that this card may be used for purchases at any place that accepts bank card transactions, such as Postbank, ATMs, and merchants.
The government agency has also encouraged its grant beneficiaries to also provide their private bank accounts to Sassa as another option of safe and easy payment.
It is for this reason that Sassa clients are urged to meet the government agency halfway by being a little bit more diligent when they put their bank account details, so social grant payments can be made.
