Janeane, a regular online shopper, was on her way to a lovely Saturday night dinner with friends.
She was looking forward to relaxing for a few hours after a busy and stressful year – but a restful dinner it was not going to be.
Her phone beeped as she walked into the restaurant. It was a Bank Zero notification, informing her of an online transaction that was attempted using her card… on a website based in Cyprus.
Janeane’s past experience
Janeane was still recovering from the trauma of 18 months ago, when her card at her previous bank had been used fraudulently to make 52 purchases of R999 data bundles in quick succession and before she had time to react.
During that process, her card had to be cancelled, and her account had to be frozen temporarily.
She could not make any payments for 10 days, and because it happened over month-end, all her debit orders bounced.
Although all her money was refunded after two weeks, the process was deeply traumatic.
Janeane was therefore unwilling to go through that process again, so she immediately opened her Bank Zero app and cancelled her card.
Thereafter, she transferred all her money out of that account to ensure the fraudsters could not access her money, even if they could access her card.
As she ordered her meal, she was still shaking from anger at the audacity of the fraudsters and the close call of almost having the same experience again.
Another attempt
The following night, she received another notification of an attempt to use her now-cancelled card.
She noticed the amount was smaller than before, as the fraudsters were trying to guess the limit she had set on her card.
Even though she knew her card couldn’t be used because it was cancelled, she was absolutely fed up.
The next day, she contacted Bank Zero – and to her surprise, she learnt that she didn’t have to take any action.
In fact, there was no need to cancel her card or transfer her money out of the account in the first place.
The Bank Zero advantage
Janeane was protected because with Bank Zero, no online card transaction will be successful unless it is authorised on the user’s own phone.
Additionally, while only secure websites (also known as 3DS-secure websites) usually request authorisation, with Bank Zero, authorisation is required on ALL websites.
So, even though the fraudsters somehow got hold of Janeane’s card details – they possibly copied them when she used her card on another fraudulent site – they couldn’t do anything with this information.
The only impact on Janeane was that she received two irritating notifications of declined online card transactions.
Her cancelled card could be reinstated, too, so that she didn’t have to order a new card – instead, she could immediately continue shopping in the online world, as well as in physical stores, and she could continue making payments from her account, as if nothing ever happened.
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