Standard Bank says only some accounts affected by ‘hack’

Standard Bank Namibia (SBN) says it has put in place corrective measures after customers recorded unauthorised payments by an international company on Sunday night.

The bank’s spokesperson, Magreth Mengo, on Monday said the payments were made by an international company using account holders’ debit card details, and no account was hacked.

“Please note that there was no unauthorised access to clients’ bank accounts. Please note that this was a limited number of unauthorised debit card transactions from an international merchant,” she said.

The bank sent a short message to some of its clients, confirming that their debit card details were compromised in an apparent hack that occurred on Sunday night.

The incident resulted in some clients’ bank balances going into minuses.

“Dear valued client, we have detected that your debit card details have been compromised. We therefore blocked the card to avoid any further possible unauthorised transactions. These unauthorised purchases will be refunded to you within 24 hours,“ the bank said.

The transactions were from a specific vendor.

“We have detected unauthorised debit card transactions on a limited number of clients from a specific vendor,” the bank said.

– Read more in The Namibian