Nedbank got 37 years of loyalty - when fraud struck, the bank gave them silence

AS concerns grow over fraud-related complaints at Nedbank and Standard Bank, two long-standing Nedbank customers have come forward with strikingly similar accounts of devastating financial losses, unanswered questions, and what they describe as dismissive “goodwill” settlement offers after their accounts were compromised.

- KARABO NGOEPE

Their stories, now before the National Financial Ombud Scheme (NFO), raise broader concerns about the security of South Africa's digital banking systems, the effectiveness of fraud detection tools, and whether banks are doing enough to explain how sophisticated fraud incidents occur.

At the centre of both cases is the same unresolved issue: when customers lose tens of thousands of rands through banking app fraud, what obligation does a bank have to provide a clear technical explanation of how the breach happened?

For Cape Town-based cybersecurity professional Megan Hendriks, the alleged silence from Nedbank has become as distressing as the financial loss itself.

Hendriks, who runs the cybersecurity TikTok platform “The War in Your Wi-Fi” and has authored a children’s book on online safety, says her husband Willie’s Nedbank account was emptied after he was robbed at gunpoint in December 2025.

According to correspondence shared with IOL, Willie Hendriks was ambushed in traffic near Bellevue Avenue in Observatory on December 23 at around 3:30pm. His cellphone was stolen while unlocked during the robbery.

“At the time, only the Waze app was open. No banking applications were active,” Hendriks said.

What followed, however, has left the family with more questions than answers.

Within a short period after the theft, unauthorised transactions amounting to R24 900 were allegedly processed through the Nedbank banking app. These included five eWallet payments of R1 000 each, two transfers of R2 000, a R9 900 beneficiary transfer, and additional transfers of R5 000 and R4 900.

Hendriks maintains that no bank cards were stolen, no PINs were shared, and no banking credentials were disclosed.

More notably, she says other banking apps installed on the same device, including accounts with Discovery Bank and Absa, were never accessed.