The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) has requested that beneficiaries collect their grant payments from retailers for the month of December. This follows Postbank’s decision to suspend ATM withdrawals.
Postbank’s decision was made following the recent increase in card fraud. To avoid this fraudulent activity, Sassa grant beneficiaries are advised to collect their grants from the following retailers:
- Shoprite
- Checkers
- Pick n Pay
- USave
- Boxer
- Spar
- OK
A few months ago, Postbank reported in Parliament that they experienced fraud and since then they have implemented measures in their system to detect how the fraudulent activity took place. Due to the measures, Postbank was able to detect that the card fraud took place via ATMs.
Postbank spokesperson Dr Bongani Diako stated there were indications of malicious activity within the company which is currently being investigated. “Safe to say that the systems detected sufficiently enough information for us to make the call that we should move away from the payments over the ATMs,” said Diako.
According to Diako, the announcement that beneficiaries should collect their social grants from retailers has been reported through social media, so many grant recipients should be aware of the situation. Diako apologized for the inconvenience to those who have made use of the ATM payment method in the past and now have to switch to collect their grant from retailers.
Postbank states that the ATM grant payment method will only be suspended for the month of December. Their team has continued to make progress in securing their system and getting it back online.
The company hopes to be back in operation as soon as possible. Once ATM payments are back, all Sassa beneficiaries will be informed via the media or social media platforms.
