As South Africa joined the world in celebrating International Women’s Day, several women who have fallen victim to romance scams across South Africa have appealed to the government and law enforcement authorities to do more to protect women.
Since last year, IOL has been running the scammed series where several women and men have lost their hard-earned money including pensions and bank loans through romance scams. The victims have regrouped and are knocking on different doors, demanding answers.
Some of the scammed women have alleged that they were turned away from different police stations, while several fraud cases opened by the victims have been closed by the South African Police Service (SAPS).
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On the other hand, a number of the scammed victims allege that First National Bank (FNB) failed to protect them during the transactions - including allegations that some of the money was withdrawn without the victims’ consent. The women also claim that the scammers directed them to open FNB bank accounts as it was the bank preferred by the criminals.
Many of the scammed victims did not have FNB accounts prior to the scams, but during the complicated scams, the victims were enticed by the scammers to open and transact using FNB.
This week, IOL caught up with some of the scammed women, who have now formed a support group named Recover and Rebuild Victims Empowerment. The women’s identities and police cases are known to IOL, but their names are withheld to protect the victims from secondary victimisation.
“Unfortunately, many of us have fallen victim to being manipulated to make large withdrawals, with one case involving the withdrawal of R500,000 from a customer's account without the account owner’s presence or consent. This raises serious concerns about the ethics and security protocols in place at financial institutions like FNB,” said one of the scammed women.
“Despite reporting our incidents to FNB and the South African Police Service we have been met with a lack of accountability and inadequate action. Our own investigations have revealed a pattern of collusion between bank employees and scammers.”
The woman was referring to the story published last week by IOL, where a 46-year-old North West woman, Zenani, has been seeking answers from First National Bank since November 2022 after she discovered that an amount of R520,000 which she had received as pension had vanished.
In February, IOL published the story of Keneilwe who alleges she does not know how her R2 million pension was transferred from her FNB account. She insisted that she was not present when her hard-earned money was transferred, and said she never gave anyone her banking app passwords.
IOL has also reached to the Financial Sector Conduct Authority (FSCA) as majority of the scammed women believe there was flouting of laws when they were either allowed to withdraw huge sums of money, or money was fraudulently withdrawn from their bank accounts.
Regarding the withdrawal of large sums of money, the FSCA said in South Africa there are no specific regulations on cash withdrawals.
“From the FSCA perspective, there are no specific regulations regarding cash withdrawal limits. However, customers have the option of setting daily or transaction specific limits directly with their individual banks based on their own personal and security preferences for their protection,” the authority told IOL following a query.
The FSCA advised that if the victims feel that their banking institutions are not providing tangible solutions, the bank clients should escalate matters to the National Financial Ombud Scheme (NFO).
“If a bank is unresponsive or the issue remains unresolved, victims can escalate the matter to the National Financial Ombud Scheme (NFO), providing all relevant information. NFO mediates disputes between customers and banks to facilitate a resolution.
“Victims are also urged to report such activity to the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the Southern African Fraud Prevention Service (SAFPS),” according to the FSCA.
Some of the scammed women allege that they were under a form of coercion when they were led into some bank branches, and were escorted to withdraw huge sums of money.
The FCSA said the coercion should be reported to authorities.
“To report an incident of fraud and coercion, customers should contact the bank's fraud department. The department will provide guidance on the necessary documentation and the required process. Such allegations should also be reported to the SAPS and the SAFPS,” the FSCA added.
Some of the scammed victims insist the banking institutions erred in giving them huge cash loans which they cannot afford to service.
“The National Credit Regulator (NCR) regulates and ensures compliance with the National Credit Act concerning the provision of credit or loan products. Individual complaints regarding the inappropriate granting of credit may also be lodged with the NFO,” according to the FSCA - the South African financial institutions market conduct regulator.
Last month, IOL published a story where seasoned crime expert Calvin Rafadi questioned the role of bank officials in the widespread romance scams, which have left numerous women across South Africa destitute, after their hard-earned money including pensions is stolen.
In an interview with IOL, Calvin Rafadi who is a research associate at the University of Johannesburg said banks have some questions to answer to authorities.
“This is more and more of the syndicates operating in South Africa because they recruit one another as women are being more and more vulnerable. In incidents where large amounts of cash are withdrawn from the banks, the criminals make sure that most of their activities are not done through EFTs but they get the actual cash,” he said.
“Remember, if electronic transfers are done, law enforcement will need to zoom in on the people who own the accounts where the money was transferred to. The criminals are working in cahoots with bank managers and bank tellers. When someone walks into a bank to withdraw a cash amount exceeding R25,000 and that account is not a business account, in such scenarios the banks are obliged in law to report such transactions within 48 hours.”
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In December, IOL submitted a dossier to FNB containing the details of the bank's several customers who lost millions of rands through romance scams.
Responding to the widespread allegations, last month FNB’s spokesperson Sizwekazi Mdingi said detection and prevention of fraud are of utmost priority to the bank.
“FNB takes all fraud cases seriously and undertakes to investigate each case thoroughly in line with its zero-tolerance approach to criminality. In terms of the outlined fraud cases and their modus operandi, the bank sympathises with all victims of these incidents, and the detection and prevention of this fraud remains of utmost priority to the bank,” she said in an updated response to IOL.
FNB said it is committed to ensuring that its bank accounts are managed in compliance with all regulatory and legal requirements.
“In reference to the large cash withdrawal requests made in these cases, FNB can confirm that it has strict processes and procedures in place that need to be adhered to upon receipt of a cash requisition or withdrawal request from a customer. Such a transaction cannot occur without the appropriate audit trail being in place,” said Mdingi.
She said the bank is obligated to give its customers their personal funds when requested to do so, provided all the necessary protocols have been followed.
Romance scams, also referred to as dating scams or love scams, are a common fraudulent scheme where a person, especially women, are met by strangers who propose love to them. In the many cases investigated by IOL, the scammers who have since vanished, were foreign nationals who avowed love to the employed women in different cities across South Africa.
As the love blossoms, with regular promises of fancy wedding ceremonies and blissful, lifelong marriages, the unsuspecting women are persuaded to either resign or take out bank loans so that the money would be invested into the “lovebirds” business venture to support their upcoming family.