Beware bogus Banking Ombud text messages

Banking Ombud Clive Pillay isn’t in the habit of “issuing out funds” directly to consumers, and his office certainly doesn’t send SMSes about ruling

“We have come across a number of examples of fictitious SMSes sent to non-existent complainants of the Ombudsman of Banking Services (OBS),” Pillay said.

They claim that the complainant has been successful in his/her claim and that the bank has paid the funds over to the OBS or “the Ombudsman” or “Clive Pillay” and that they will be advised when they can collect the money from the OBS.

“These badly written, bogus SMSes are completely fictitious,” Pillay said. “We are not quite sure what the ultimate scam entails, but we suspect that the SMSes are the beginning of a process which will ultimately seek to gain from the complainant his/her bank details.

“The OBS will never send an SMS to notify a complainant of a reimbursement.”

In fact, the OBS does not reimburse anyone. The office offers consumers who feel they have been treated unfairly by their bank a free dispute handling service. If the OBS rules in favour of the consumer, any refund due is payable directly by the bank in question.

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Should you receive such a message, ignore it or contact the OBS on 011 712 1800 / 0860 800 900 / Fax 011 483 3212 / Email info@obssa.co.za