Beware of dodgy debit orders

Check monthly statements to avoid unauthorised debit orders going through you account. Image: Michelle Meiklejohn Free Digital Photos

Hellopeter.com, a portal in which consumers report good and bad service from suppliers, shows that there are over 300 consumers whose bank accounts have been hit by debit order fraud this year.

The debit orders are not easily detected because the amounts are below R100 and banks do not send notification for debit orders of that amount. So you must carefully check your statements every month.

Sadly, the banks have no duty to check whether or not you have authorised these companies to debit your account. Take this case of a sick pensioner Israel Mokele, 60, of Dobsonville Extension 3, Soweto.

His account has been constantly debited by seven companies for the past two years. His bank told him it was his responsibility to reverse all the unauthorised debit orders, even though they did not have any signed letter authorising these companies to debit his account.

He says although the bank gave him the contact details of these companies, he managed to talk to just three of them. "It still did not help because they reinstated the debit orders a few months later," he said.

Telemarketing companies

All these debit orders were from Durban-based telemarketing companies, which offer loyalty benefits or amazing discounts cards and shopping vouchers to consumers.

The debits included services such as road-side assistance, home assistance, education and legal help, all services which Mokele says he does not need. Mokele, who does not have a car, says his children have completed their studies.

"I am sick and cannot afford to go to my bank to reverse these orders all the time when they debit my account," he says.

His bank statement shows that Zingzilla, Destdyn, Quadrico, NTN Seniobus, Trade4aces, Dynamix, Siyathcom and Globaltrd were debiting a total of R1,488 to his account every month. Yet he has no dealings with any of these companies.

Consumer Line was unable to talk to most of these companies as their telephone lines are either out of service or we just could not get through. Only Kewell Pillay of Zingzilla answered his phone.

He said their company was now called The Clue because they have taken over Zingzilla and agreed to refund the R900 they had debited to Mokele's account since June this year.

Irma Dednam, a manager at Stratcol, whose company offers an administrative service for these telemarketing companies, says they are unable to check the authenticity of these debit orders because they expect that the companies would have done all the verifications.

She says they terminate the service of any company that is found to be debiting consumers' accounts without authorisation.

Dednam says the other problem is that these companies are sole proprietors and once they terminate their services they always come back using a new name.

"But we do help consumers recover their money if the debit orders were indeed not authorised," she says.

Source: Sowetan via I-Net Bridge