I recently fell victim to a fairly sophisticated online shopping scam, and while losing the money is frustrating, what has surprised me even more is how ineffective FNB’s fraud investigation process appears to be.
Here’s what happened:
I came across what appeared to be the legitimate Burnt sportswear website through Facebook. I’m not sure whether it was targeted advertising, but the website was an almost identical recreation of the real Burnt online store.
The fraudulent website was operating under burntstudiopro . co . za, rather than Burnt’s legitimate domain.
What’s particularly concerning is that when you click a link through Facebook on your phone, it opens in Facebook’s built-in browser, where the actual URL isn’t immediately obvious.
The website looked legitimate. You could browse products, add items to your cart and complete checkout. That’s exactly what I did.
How I discovered the scam:
After my order didn’t arrive, I started investigating.
There were a few warning signs I’d initially missed, including the fact that the website only offered collection from Stellenbosch.
I eventually contacted Burnt’s legitimate customer support team, who confirmed that the website was fraudulent.
Now for the really frustrating part: FNB.
I reported the transaction as fraud through FNB’s official process.
The response was astonishingly disappointing.
As you can see from the attached screenshot, there appeared to be virtually no investigation. Nobody contacted me for additional evidence, asked about the fraudulent website, or requested any meaningful details beyond the disputed amount. Just me following up until the they responded.
Instead, FNB essentially dismissed the dispute because I had authorised the transaction using a one-time PIN.
Now, I fully understand that I authorised the payment. I’m not disputing that.
But surely authorising a payment under false pretences doesn’t mean that fraud hasn’t occurred?
The payment was made to a fraudulent merchant impersonating a legitimate South African business.
What concerns me is that FNB’s process appears to stop at whether the customer authorised the transaction, rather than meaningfully investigating the fraudulent merchant receiving the funds.
When I tried following up, I was passed from department to department, with no clear ownership of the issue or explanation of what investigation, if any, had actually taken place.
My frustration comes down to two things:
1. The apparent lack of rigour in FNB’s fraud investigations.
I understand that banks cannot automatically refund every customer who falls victim to a scam. But surely there should be a meaningful investigation?
Simply establishing that a customer approved an OTP doesn’t address the underlying fraud.
- What happens to the criminals?
This is actually my bigger concern.
Someone has gone to the trouble of recreating an established South African brand’s website, directing customers there through Facebook and collecting payments.
If the bank’s response is simply that the customer authorised the transaction, who is investigating the merchants receiving these payments?
Are the fraudulent merchant accounts being flagged? Are other customers being protected? Is any action being taken against the people operating these websites?
From my experience, there’s little indication that anything is being done.
It feels like the scammers can simply continue operating while customers are left to absorb the losses.
