Johannesburg – The Postbank on Tuesday announced that the withdrawal of funds at ATMs using the Postbank-issued South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) gold cards has been suspended for the December 2022 month.
“SASSA grants beneficiaries using the Postbank-issued gold cards are requested to withdraw their benefits from retail merchants,” the Postbank said.
In recent months, the Postbank said it had been experiencing several technical glitches that disrupted the smooth withdrawal of Social Assistance benefits.
“Following extensive investigations, we have now uncovered a series of network attacks by criminal elements determined to commit systematic ATM card fraud-related crimes on Postbank payments using sophisticated modus operandi which require further investigation,” the Postbank said.
“As a mitigating exercise, and in consultation with our partners following the resurgence of these criminal activities at the inception of the December payments, it has become necessary that Postbank suspends SASSA grants withdrawal at ATM for those clients using the PostBank issued SASSA gold cards.”
SASSA beneficiaries using the Postbank-issued SASSA gold cards are requested to withdraw their social grants monies at any retail outlets nationwide that provide the cashback functionality which includes Shoprite, Checkers, Usave, Pick n Pay and Boxer.
SASSA grants recipients can also use the SASSA gold cards to make purchases at any place that accepts bank card transactions as the SASSA gold cards function fully within the national payments system similar to any other bank card.
“We assure our customers that a dedicated team of professionals, assisted by experienced external experts as well as law enforcement agencies have been assigned to deal with this challenge and great progress has been made to close down all avenues used by these criminals,” said Postbank.
The Post Office savings bank said it was aware of the impact that this change in payment channels will have on the social grants beneficiaries and other stakeholders, and we apologize for the inconvenience.
“Social Grants beneficiaries are also assured that the Postbank-issued SASSA gold cards are still valid and have not expired,” said the Postbank.
“Therefore, beneficiaries should not be misled into changing the cards unless if they wish to do so on their own accord.
“Postbank will notify social grants beneficiaries when ATM transactions via the SASSA gold cards are available again.”
