Grant payments have been halted at ATMs for the time being as a criminal network targets the system

Social grant recipients who use Postbank or the SA Social Security Agency’s (Sassa) gold cards will be unable to withdraw funds from ATMs in December, the agency announced on Tuesday.

Postbank and gold cardholders will be able to withdraw funds only from retail merchants.

Sassa said in a statement that the shutdown was caused by the discovery of a criminal network that had targeted Postbank ATMs to gain access to Postbank accounts.

The statement reads:

“In recent months, Postbank has been experiencing a number of technical glitches that disrupted the smooth withdrawal of Social Assistance benefits. Following extensive investigations, we have 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.

“As a mitigating exercise, and in consultation with our partners following the resurgence of these criminal activities at the inception of the December payments, it has become necessary that Postbank suspends Sassa grants withdrawal at ATMs for those clients using the Postbank-issued Sassa gold cards.”

The Postbank has been unable to pay grants for the third time this year due to technical issues.

Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick ‘n Pay, and Boxer are among the retailers mentioned by Sassa. As with any other bank card, gold card holders can use their cards to make purchases anywhere that accepts bank card transactions.

Sassa also assured recipients that their gold cards were still valid and had not expired.

“We assure our customers that a dedicated team of professionals, assisted by experienced external experts as well as law enforcement agencies, has been assigned to deal with this challenge, and great progress has been made to close down all avenues used by these criminals,” said Sassa.

Sassa stated that Postbank will notify beneficiaries when ATM transactions are resumed.