The future of Reabetse Modisane, 18, has been put on hold after almost R440,000 her parents left for her education was allegedly stolen in 20 minutes from her bank account.
The incident happened in May when a man pretending to be from the bank allegedly called and advised her to move the money to a different bank account for safety.
She is a child who isn’t aware of anything. Why didn’t Standard Bank flag the transactions. Also convenient is it that the call comes a day after the money was deposited into her account.
— Lefa Tolo, Victim's uncle
Reabetswe, from the North West, passed grade 12 last year and the money had been saved by her late father for her university education.
The funds were deposited into her Standard Bank account in May and a few days later she received the call from the alleged fraudster.
She said she was made to transfer R48,900, R190,000 and R200,000 to a Capitec Bank account. The deposits were all done under 20 minutes.
Her family is blaming the bank for allowing such transactions to pass through without being flagged.
Her uncle, Lefa Tolo, said the teenager has suffered depression because of the loss and not knowing where she’d get money again to enrol at varsity.
“Her father had set up a trust account before he passed with the intention that it would be used for her education once she matriculated,” he said.
“A day after the R438,900 was deposited into her account, she got a call that she should move the money into a Capitec Bank account to be able to save her money and not misuse it. The money was gone in 20 minutes.”
Tolo said Reabetswe as not suspicious about the call.
“She is a child who isn’t aware of anything. Why didn’t Standard Bank flag the transactions. Also convenient is it that the call comes a day after the money was deposited into her account. This seems to be an inside job because no one knew about the funds besides family,” he said.
Standard Bank said it was aware of Reabetswe’s plight and that it has investigated the matter. The bank said she could have been a victim of a vishing (voice-phishing) scam.
“Our investigation established that the beneficiary account [Capitec Bank] to which the funds were ultimately transferred was created by the customer on her digital banking profile on 13 May 2026, approximately 10 days before both the disputed payments and the fraudster’s telephone call to the customer on 23 May 2026,” said the bank’s spokesperson Ross Linstrom.
He said this chronology was a significant factor in the investigation as it demonstrated that the beneficiary was established well in advance of the transactions and Reabetswe receiving the funds.
“These findings do not support allegations that the payments resulted from a compromise of Standard Bank’s systems or from an internal information breach immediately preceding the transactions,” said Linstrom.
“Furthermore, our records confirm that the customer’s device was used to create the Capitec Bank beneficiary on her digital banking profile and, subsequently, to initiate the payments to that beneficiary.”
The bank said the transactions were authenticated using the applicable security credentials and authentication mechanisms required to authorise and confirm the payments.
“This indicates that the transactions were processed through the customer’s registered digital banking channel using the appropriate security controls in place at the time,” said Linstrom.
Tolo said Reabetswe’s sister checked the number of the alleged fraudster with Truecaller and it was labelled as a fraud number.
“We immediately contacted the bank who told us they would communicate with Capitec Bank and that they’d freeze the account to prevent any movement while we opened the case with the police.
“Two weeks later, an investigator from Capitec Bank said they found no fault with the bank and that Reabetswe had legally made the transactions and flagged it only a day after. She further said that the account in question only had a R406 balance in it,” he said.
Public relations lead for Capitec Bank, Inganathi Mnyasane, said the bank was aware of the matter and has cooperated with Standard Bank in support of its investigation.
Standard Bank has since offered the family a settlement offer of goodwill.
The family has also escalated the issue with the National Financial Ombudsman (NFO) for further investigation, which it said was still at a preliminary stage.
The North West police confirmed that a case of fraud has been opened, with no suspects identified as yet.
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