Sello, a 46-year old soccer fan, did his usual daily commute to work on 9 Sept. He stepped out of his taxi at his usual drop-off point and began his last 100m walk to work. But… it was not going to be a usual day.

As he arrived at work, his phone rang. A good Samaritan on the other end informed him that his wallet had been left behind in the taxi. He only then realised that it had slipped out of his pocket when he squeezed himself into the middle seat. His wallet contained his ID, some cash and a few different bank cards – his life could very quickly become very uncomfortable. With a warm fuzzy feeling he gratefully whispered to himself “today is my lucky day” as he ran back and collected his wallet with all its contents intact. Or so he thought…

While going about his normal workday, Sello’s phone started beeping. Notifications were coming through, showing online card transactions on various websites. Some showing as successful, quickly draining his hard-earned salary, while some showed as declined. His earlier warm fuzziness was quickly turning into panic.

He checked his wallet – but all his cards were still there! That was when he realised that someone took pictures of his bank cards before returning his wallet to him – and were now using those card details to spend as fast as possible on various websites.

He logged into all his banking Apps and locked all his cards immediately. Sure, he won’t be able to use his cards, but so won’t the Samaritan-turned-Fraudster.

Another beep, another notification showing his card being declined… that was when he took a closer look at all the notifications and saw that, while all the other banks’ notifications showed as successful, the Bank Zero ones all showed as declined.

He started contacting various banks to ask for his cards to be cancelled and replaced. When he explained his morning ordeal to the Bank Zero team, the security of the Bank Zero card hit home. He was told how the card was in fact fraudster-proof: not only does it have a unique-world-first patent that prevents skimming, but Bank Zero requires ALL online card transactions (even those from unsecure sites) to be authorised by the cardholder. Even though the fraudster had Sello’s card number, expiry date and the 3-digit security code at the back, Bank Zero will still send Sello an approval notification before any money can leave his account. No personal authorisation means no successful transaction.

Sello unlocked his Bank Zero card again, ready for use, knowing his money remained safe. No replacements needed. No admin schlep. No need to open a case of fraud and wait for the money to be returned. Unfortunately the same could not be said for his other bank cards.

His only inconvenience (or perhaps glee!) was watching the Bank Zero decline-notifications popping up.

As they were about to end the call, Sello exclaimed “But wait, what if the online card subscription is posted at night, like for Netflix? I won’t be able to personally authorise that!” And that was when Sello was introduced to another unique-in-the-world Bank Zero innovation. As Sello starts using those types of ‘Card Subscriptions’, a personalised list is built in his Card Settings. All he has to do, is tick Netflix for auto-authorisation.

As Sello ended the call, he reflected on his decision to join Bank Zero a year ago, and that that decision certainly made this Friday his lucky day. Now, if only his beloved soccer team could give him that same great feeling of winning that his Bank Zero account gave him, he would have the luckiest weekend of his life.