Log the formal bank complaint

The one idea

Reporting the fraud and complaining about the bank are two different acts, and you need both. The fraud report says "a crime happened to me". The formal complaint says "here is what I say the BANK got wrong, and here is what I want done about it". Only the second starts the clock that eventually opens the ombud door — the National Financial Ombud generally requires the bank's own complaints process to have run first.

Compare:

Six angry phone calls over three weeks, no reference numbers, nothing in writing. To the NFO this history is invisible — there is no complaint on record at all.

versus

Day one: written complaint through the bank's official complaints channel. "On 12 June I reported fraud (ref FRD-88213) at 16:05. Transactions totalling R43,700 after that time were not blocked. I ask that they be refunded and the block failure explained. Complaint ref: CMP-4471." — the escalation clock is running.

What a complaint entry needs

Written channel (email or complaint portal — calls get a follow-up email "confirming our call today"); the facts by timestamp, referencing your timeline; the specific failure you allege; the specific remedy you want; and the reference number they give you. Then log every response and every broken promise ("said supervisor would call in 24h — no call, day 3") with dates. Unanswered commitments become part of the complaint.

Try it now

Find your bank's official complaints channel now (search "[bank] complaints process") and note it. Draft the four-sentence skeleton: what happened (with refs), what the bank failed to do, what you want, request for a reference number.

Your win today

Your grievance exists on paper, with a reference, inside the process the ombud will later ask about — not in an unrecorded phone queue.