ATM withdrawals of grants using Postbank-issued SA Social Security Agency (Sassa) gold cards have been suspended for this month because of criminals targeting these payments.
“In recent months, Postbank has been experiencing a number of technical glitches that disrupted the smooth withdrawal of social assistance benefits,” said spokesman Dr Bongani Diako, on Tuesday.
“Following extensive investigations, we have now uncovered a series of network attacks by criminal elements determined to commit systematic ATM-card-fraud-related crimes on Postbank payments using sophisticated modus operandi which require further investigation.”
Beneficiaries using the cards have been advised to instead make withdrawals at retailers, such as Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick n Pay and Boxer. And they can still use their cards to make purchases at any merchant that accepts bank-card transactions.
A team of experts and law-enforcement agencies was working on the problem and Postbank would advise when ATM services were available again, said Dr Diako.
“Social-grants beneficiaries are also assured that the Postbank-issued Sassa gold cards are still valid and have not expired. Therefore, beneficiaries should not be misled into changing the cards unless they wish to do so on their own accord,” he said.
